Priority option for handling spent nuclear fuel in Belarus is its export to Russia for processing

The Head of the Technical Support Department at Belenergo, Nadezhda Zdanevich, has commented on the issue

“Based on the results of the conducted studies and assessments, the preferred option for handling spent nuclear fuel is its processing in the Russian Federation with the return to Belarus of processing waste included in a glass-like matrix containing radionuclides of the caesium and strontium fractions with the exception of long-lived radionuclides. This approach has been laid into the basis of the intergovernmental agreement between Belarus and Russia in the field of spent nuclear fuel management,” the expert said.

As noted by Ms. Zdanevich, the foundations of spent nuclear fuel treatment in Belarus were laid back in 2011, “The agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant on the territory of Belarus had a provision reading that the spent nuclear fuel generated after the use of Russian nuclear fuel should be returned to the Russian Federation. Differently speaking, the country took charge of that even before the construction of the plant. Later, two strategic agreements were adopted: on transportation of nuclear materials and on spent nuclear fuel management.”

The expert added that active work is underway to implement the provisions of the intergovernmental agreement on spent nuclear fuel management. “A draft resolution of the Council of Ministers has been developed. It envisages the establishment of authorised organisations to manage radioactive waste that we will receive after processing in the Russian Federation. The procedure for making decisions by the Energy Ministry on dispatching of spent nuclear fuel for processing to Russia has also been outlined,” she said.

In development of this direction, specialists of the Belarusian nuclear power plant have joined scientists of the Sosny Joint Institute of Power and Nuclear Research and the Russian side to check the feasibility of the fundamental decisions on implementation of the strategy of spent nuclear fuel management in terms of the return of processed products to Belarus. Three out of 10 planned stages have been completed, all work is to finished by December 2024.