Options for sites to construct BelNPP storage facility for RAW to be determined in 2025 - Rosatom

YEKATERINBURG. Sept 11 (Interfax) - Three possible sites to construct a facility to store radioactive waste (RAW) from the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (BelNPP) will be determined in 2025, with design work to build the facility possibly requiring up to five years, acting CEO of National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management (NO RAO) federal state unitary enterprise, part of Rosatom state nuclear energy corporation, Sergei Deryabin, told journalists.

"We selected a region in Belarus for the [storage] location last year, and next year we will be developing three alternative sites directly in a specific region," Deryabin said at the second international conference Status and Prospects for Developing Infrastructure to Decommission Nuclear and Radiation Hazardous Facilities and Handling Radioactive Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF)" in Yekaterinburg.

There were earlier reports that the initiative on the possibility to construct a storage site for RAW from the BelNPP was underway in Belarus during consultations with Rosatom.

Deryabin also said that pre-design work to construct the storage facility could require from three to five years.

"These are preliminary surveys. The work is foremost active with the population. This is public acceptability. These are not only technical solutions, they are specific types of research and development," he said.

As reported, the BelNPP in Ostrovets, Grodno Region, was built according to the Russian VVER-1200 design. BelNPP has two power units with capacity of 1.2 GW. JSC AtomStroyExport (ASE), Rosatom's engineering division, is the general contractor of the construction. A $10-billion Russian government loan was raised to finance the project.

BelNPP's first power unit was connected to the network in November 2020 and commercially launched in June 2021. The second power unit was connected to the network in May 2023 and commercially launched on November 1.