National Action Plan following the Results of the Belarus NPP Stress-tests Is Published

The National Action Plan following the results of stress-tests of the Belarusian NPP (hereinafter referred to as the National Action Plan) is published on the Internet resource of the Department of Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus. The document contains measures aimed at improving safety of the Belarusian NPP, which were formed on the basis of the results of the Belarusian NPP stress-tests and the peer review of the National Report on Belarusian NPP stress-tests. The peer review was held by ENSREG in 2017-2018.

When forming the activities of the Belarusian National Plan and the schedule of its implementation, Gosatomnadzor, together with interested parties, analyzed in detail each recommendation of the peer review. After that specific measures were developed and the timing for their implementation was determined, based on the first priority of safety. The following issues were taken into account:

- the absence of identified safety deficiencies of the Belarusian NPP and the focus of the recommendations in the PRT Report on sustainable improvement of the safety of the Belarusian NPP;

- the fact that the peer review was conducted with respect to the nuclear power plant under construction, and the criteria and assessments proposed by the new recommendations of the IAEA in 2016 and WENRA in 2014 were applied for the first time;

- the ongoing licensing process for the operation of Unit 1 of the Belarusian NPP;

- the real time, human and financial resources required to implement additional measures to enhance security;

- technical solutions of the NPP-2006 project and its features.

The current status of the implementation of activities of the National Plan is given in the appendix to the document.

Implementation of activities in the area of responsibility of the Belarusian NPP is supervised by Gosatomnadzor. At the same time, Gosatomnadzor implements measures related to its own competence in a timely manner. The implementation of the National Plan is generally supervised at the Government level. Thus, close cooperation was established between all interested parties in the comprehensive implementation of actions based on the results of stress tests of the Belarusian NPP and peer review based on the principle of “intelligent ownership” recommended by the ENSREG experts.

As the National Plan is implemented, Gosatomnadzor will determine an approach to assess the progress of its implementation, as recommended in the PRT Report.

To open (download) the National Action Plan click the link /upload/iblock/f65/natsplan-stress_testy.rar (there is only version in Russian).

Stress-tests are one-time extra review of the resistance of nuclear power plants to extreme natural hazards and their combination in the context of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (Japan). When they were carried out, the presence of “safety margins” was assessed over the requirements established by national legislation. At the same time, the requirements of national legislation meet the IAEA safety standards.