According to the official Nikolai Mikhailov, Deputy Director of the Department for Nuclear Power Plant Operations and Radioactive Waste Management of the Ministry of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Department, outlined the timetable at a roundtable discussion at the agency’s offices.
It quotes Mikhailov as saying: “This year, we will need to complete an environmental impact assessment and hold public consultations both in Belarus and with other countries. Significant public engagement work is currently under way in Belarus. Then, we will need to select a site for the disposal site. Our plans for 2027 include developing an architectural design for the facility and conducting state assessments. We aim to complete the construction design, construction, and commissioning of the facility by the end of 2030.”
He added: “Together with relevant Russian organisations, we must select a safe site that meets the most stringent criteria. We will then need to select the most optimal technical solutions from a safety standpoint and ensure proper personnel training.”
At the same event, Mikhail Kisel, Director of the Belarusian Organisation for Radioactive Waste Management, said three prospective sites had been identified – Ostrovets District, near the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, Mstislavl District in Mogilev Oblast, and Khoiniki District of Gomel Oblast.
He said that public hearings would be held after the completion of the environmental impact assessment for such a facility, but added, according to Belta, that they had “already begun working with the public … over the past six months we have held more than 20 meetings with local residents and representatives of workforce collectives. It is clear that this topic is of great concern to people. We communicate with them completely openly. We explain what a radioactive waste disposal facility is, that it is a high-tech engineering structure designed for the final isolation of waste, with no release into the environment for the entire period of hazard posed by that waste, which is not just decades but longer. We explain the multi-barrier structure. For long-term storage and disposal, radioactive waste is, if necessary, mixed with a cement compound, placed into safe containers, and then into the repository”.
The existing Belarus nuclear power plant is located in Ostrovets in the Grodno region. A general contract with Russia’s Rosatom for the construction was signed in 2011, with first concrete in November 2013. Rosatom began construction of unit 2 in May 2014. The first Ostrovets power unit was connected to the grid in November 2020. The second unit was put into commercial operation on 1 November 2023. Together they are generating about one-quarter of the country’s electricity.
Belarus says there is current storage capacity at the nuclear power plant, but a purpose-built disposal site will be required by 2030.
