VATESI has issued annual report 2009. In this report you can find information about VATESI activities related with nuclear safety and radiation protection issues in Lithuania.
Last year VATESI specialists focused their attention on supervision of safety assurance of the units at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (Ignalina NPP): not a single event higher than the event of zero level on the IAEA International Nuclear Events Scale (INES) was recorded at the nuclear power plant.
In accordance with the Protocol for Admission of the Republic of Lithuania to the European Union, on 31 December 2009, at 10:54 p.m. (the time of Lithuania) Unit 2 was finally shut down and Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant ceased generating electricity. The first unit was shut down in 2004. Since its commissioning into commercial operation, Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant has generated and sold 307.1 TWh of electricity – 136.9 TWh in Unit 1 and 170.2 TWh in Unit 2, respectively.
In 2009, upon having analysed and evaluated the documents justifying safety that had been submitted by Ignalina NPP, two licences relevant to the Ignalina NPP decommissioning were issued – for the construction of a new spent nuclear fuel storage facility and for the construction of solid radioactive waste management and storage facilities.
In 2009, VATESI and Visagino Atominė Elektrinė UAB (VAE UAB) held meetings aimed at exchanging information about the progress of preparatory activities of the new nuclear power plant project and preparation of legal acts regulating nuclear safety. VAE UAB, as the organization responsible for the preparation of the project of Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant, in December 2008 had addressed VATESI with a request to get consultations on the issues of nuclear safety of the new nuclear power plant. Upon VATESI consent, the consultation scheme with 17 consultation subjects was worked out. The consultations provided to VAE UAB were started in early 2009 and were continued throughout the year. In the course of consultations such issues as drafting of legal acts regulating nuclear safety, nuclear safety (site evaluation, quality management systems, safety culture, classification of structures, systems and components, reactor designs that would be acceptable in terms of their licensing, etc.), physical security, accounting of and control over nuclear materials were addressed.
One of the priority goals at VATESI is highly qualified and equipped with special knowledge personnel. For Lithuania the significance of this goal has been increasing after having made the decision to construct the new nuclear power plant and due to the targeted goal to get properly prepared for licensing of the new nuclear power plant and supervision over its safety.
