Belarus adopts radwaste strategy

Belarus has adopted a radioactive waste management strategy for its first nuclear power plant under construction near Ostrovets. The country's council of ministers adopted a resolution outlining the strategy on 2 June. The document was published on the National Legal Internet Portal last week. The resolution entered into force after its official publication.

The strategy is based on the principles of radioactive waste management recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and regulations on nuclear and radiation safety approved by the Ministry of Emergency Situations in September 2010.

It provides for an "acceptable level of protection" from radiation exposure for plant personnel, the local population and environment and focuses on the prevention of "accidents with radiological consequences".

It predicts there will be about 9360 cubic meters of solid radioactive waste of various types and 60 cubic meters of high-level radioactive waste during the 60-year operating life of the twin-unit Ostrovets plant. Such volumes "require that sites for waste disposal be identified", according to the document. The projected amount of low- and intermediate-level radioactive solid waste resulting from decommissioning the plant is 2050 cubic meters per unit and high-level radioactive solid waste is 85 cubic meters.

The radioactive waste management system would provide for construction of an underground interim waste storage site near the plant for the storage of high-level radioactive waste for the lifetime of the plant, and of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste for ten years before being moved to a yet-to-be-determined site for long-term disposal. According to the first phase of the interim storage facility project, a site will be found by 2023 and its construction would start in 2028.

The cost of the repository is estimated to be about $60 million, of which the first phase of its construction would account for $10 million. The figures are based on similar plans for storage of such waste from Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant.

The strategy also considers construction of a deep geological facility for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste following decommissioning of the Belarusian plant.

The strategy is to be implemented between 2015 and 2080.

Work is already under way on Ostrovets 1, the first of two 1200 MWe AES-2006 reactor units planned for the site in the Grodno region of Belarus. The units are being built under a $10 billion turnkey contract between Belarus and Russia's Rosatom, which was finalised in July 2012. Unit 1 is expected to start up in late 2018, with unit 2 set for commissioning in mid-2020.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News