History and Future Prospects

Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry for Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus was created in 2007 in accordance with the Decree of the President  of the Republic of Belarus of Nov. 12. 2007 №565 “In Relation to Certain Measures Concerning the Construction of the Nuclear Power Station”.

Gosatomnadzor can be referred to the new regulatory bodies but it would be more accurate to say that it is an alloy of youth and experience: the youth is found in the issues of developing atomic energy and experience is in the sphere of ensuring radiation safety.

What concerns the issues of using ionizing radiation sources for industrial, medical scientific and other purposes, surveillance and control over operating atomic power objects – research installations and test benches of the State Research Institution “Joint Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research - Sosny” of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus as well as radioactive waste storage points, the basis for the work of Gosatomnadzor was laid by the long-term experience of the Department for Surveillance on Safety Work in Industry and Atomic Energy (Promatomnadzor). While the infrastructure of nuclear safety began to form quite recently – shortly after the resolution about the construction of the nuclear power station in the Republic of Belarus.

Yet of all the activities of Gosatomnadzor the issues of nuclear safety constitute its strategic prospects. The system of nuclear safety in the Republic of Belarus is in the stage of its formation, and its development is inseparably connected with the stages of construction of the Belarusian nuclear power station. It is evident that as the time of the launch of the station is nearing the scope of the tasks of Gosatomnadzor will be increasing.
The main tasks of Gosatomnadzor connected with ensuring nuclear safety in the future are the following:

• Conducting the process of licensing (location choice, construction, launch and operation) of new power generating units;

• Surveillance over the choice of location, construction, launch and operation of the nuclear power station;

• Defining the requirements to handling the radioactive waste and spent fuel;

• Effective response to possible radiation accidents.

The necessity of fulfilling these tasks leads to such prospective activities as increasing the human resources capacity, competence of the staff, developing internal processes in the Department (improvement of the structure, introducing the quality management system) so that at all the stages of the construction and subsequent operation of the Belarusian nuclear power station Gosatomnadzor  could effectively solve all the issues in the sphere of ensuring nuclear safety.