On 13 January 2023, the Department of Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus (Gosatom-
nadzor) has published on its website the updated information on the progress in implementation of the Results of the Stress Tests of the Belarusian NPP. Gosatomnadzor is the regulatory authority in the area of the nuclear and radiation safety in Belarus.
Lithuanian State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) has carried out analysis of this information and remains of the opinion that the operation and commissioning of the Belarusian NPP Unit 1 and Unit 2 must be suspended until all nuclear safety issues identified by the stress tests and other international missions and review processes are solved.
It should be noted that all safety measures must be implemented at both units of Belarusian NPP. Besides, even at the operational Unit 1 four safety measures still have not been implemented, moreover the action plan does not include additional recommendations related to the enhancement of the accident management and the emergency ventilation system of the containment, and protection of buildings and structures against water ingress.
For instance, it is stated that a seismic walk down of the equipment at the Unit 1 has been carried out, but there is no information whether such walk down has been carried out at the Unit 2. Two safety measures are related to the installation of the additional pump to ensure the operation of the passive safety system, but the descriptions of these measures describe the works carried out at the Unit 1 only. In addition, the descriptions of some measures provide general information about the performed works without indicating whether these measures have been or will be implemented at the Unit 2.
The deadlines of the safety measures implementation do not reflect the importance of these measures. For instance, the assessment of the resistance of the parts of the fire extinguishing systems and the housing of the on-site fire brigade against design basis earthquake is planned to be completed only by the end of 2028, and the establishment of the access to the data recorded by the seismic observation network of the Belarusian NPP has been postponed to 2023. Two safety measures still have not been implemented – one is related to the assurance of reliable cooling of the nuclear fuel in the reactor core in the event of a total loss of external and emergency power supply during refuelling process when a reactor is open, which is planned to be implemented by the end of the 2023, and the other is related to the extension of the seismic observation network stations, which is planned to be implemented only at the beginning of the 2025.
VATESI has repeatedly encouraged Belarus to incorporate into the plan two additional ENSREG experts’ recommendations related to enhancement of the accident management and the emergency ventilation system of the containment and implement them as soon as possible, but this is not done so far. The implementation of these recommendations would significantly reduce the risk of a severe accident at the Belarusian NPP and could significantly reduce the release of radionuclides in the event of such an accident. The ENSREG experts also noted deficiencies related to absence of adequate protection of some buildings and equipment against water ingress, but there is no information in the plan published by the Gosatomnadzor whether and how these deficiencies have been solved.
