MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2021) Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) operational safety mission began work at the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP), the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Belarus said on Monday.
"The IAEA Operational Safety Mission (Pre-OSART) has started work at the BelNPP site," the ministry said in a press release.
The work of the mission will be organized in 11 areas: leadership and safety management, operations, maintenance, technical support, training and qualifications, radiation protection, chemistry, exchange of operating experience, accident management, emergency planning and response, and commissioning.
"We see this invitation as an indicator of the commitment of your regulatory bodies and the Belarusian NPP to achieving the highest levels of safety in all types of nuclear energy," the head of the expert group, Yuri Martynenko, said before the start of the work of the mission.
Earlier in the month, the ministry of energy reported that a mission of the IAEA will visit the Belarusian nuclear power plant from October 25-29, within the purview of the technical cooperation project on increasing the safety of the Belarusian NPP.
The Belarusian NPP is the largest Russian-Belarusian economic project, which includes the construction of two reactors with a total capacity of 2,400 MW, built in the city of Astravets in the Grodno region.
The mission, which includes experts from Armenia, Belgium, France, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom, will assess progress in implementing the recommendations and proposals developed in 2019 on the operational safety of the first power unit of the Belarusian NPP.
On June 10, the Ministry of Energy of Belarus announced that the acceptance commission had signed an act of acceptance into operation of the start-up complex of the first unit of the Belarusian NPP, while the commissioning of the second power unit is scheduled for 2022, and the loading of nuclear fuel therein is expected at the end of this year.
