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September 21st, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Once commissioned the new nuclear power plant in Ostrovets will generate about 25% of electrical energy Belarus needs, Belarus’ Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk said at a plenary meeting of the 61st session of the IAEA General Conference in the Austrian capital Vienna on 19 September. Earlier the EU and Belarus agreed on a joint peer review of safety tests of the new power plant, but the project continues to be controversial. Some obvious safety flaws and dangers are not recognized by Belarus, the EU, or the IAEA.
Mikhail Mikhadyuk claimed that today many states pin their hopes on nuclear energy as an economically efficient and environmentally friendly source to promote their sustainable development. Belarus has also decided in favor of nuclear energy. Making “too-cheap to meter claims” that have long been falsified by the evidence, he said:
“We believe that in the near future some 25% of electricity the country needs will be produced by the Belarusian nuclear power plant. This will guarantee stable supplies of affordable and eco-friendly electricity. The development of a new high-tech nuclear energy industry provides other benefits as well. We can already see incentives for the development of new manufacturing enterprises and, hence, the creation of jobs in different spheres, from the fundamental science to the application areas such as transport, mechanical engineering or construction.”
The deputy minister emphasized the unconditional priority of nuclear safety issues, the need to meet the highest standards at every stage of the NPP designing, construction and commissioning. He took note of the key role the agency plays in the development and advancement of nuclear safety standards. The agency is a platform to share experience. It also does its best to expand cooperation between the member states.
IAEA still continues to promote the allegedly too cheap to meter energy while ignoring the true economy of the fuel cycle.
Image courtesy Garryknight
Belarus claims the IAEA efforts in assisting the universalization and the implementation of multilateral conventions on nuclear safety, physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear liability adopted under the aegis of the agency are of special significance. In this respect, one of the landmark events of the IAEA in 2017 was the Seventh Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety. Belarus believes it important to maintain a professional and practice-oriented character of cooperation within the convention.
What the government in Belarus omits is that the IAEA is tasked with “promoting nuclear energy” and that the IAEA was in part established to take “nuclear issues” away from the World Health Organization (WHO) at a time when it was gravely concerned about the acute but also long-term impact of nuclear energy on public health.
Earlier this week Belarus and the European Commission have agreed on the timeline of the peer review of results of the stress tests of the nuclear power plant. Safety tests and standards for the Belarus nuclear power plant don’t include the most obvious parameters like the economy of highly radioactive and toxic “spent fuel” that make nuclear power everything but “too cheap to meter”.
Members of the Belarusian delegation met with the European Commission’s Deputy Director General for Energy Thomas Gerassimos during the 61st session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna on 18 September.
Belarus was represented by Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk, Ambassador of Belarus to Austria and permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna Alena Kupchyna, and Olga Lugovskaya, Head of the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry (Gosatomnadzor).
The sides discussed when the peer review of results of the stress tests of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be done and how exactly the work will proceed. Belarus stress-tested its nuclear power plant in 2016 using European methods and taking into account recommendations based on the European Commission’s and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group’s (ENSREG) specifications.
Experts say Belarus used the European method to test its new Russian-made nuclear power plant among others, to minimize criticism and adverse political responses from EU member states. It’s worth noting that Germany, after the 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan, decided to completely fade out all of its nuclear power plants while Belarus starts another, in the eyes of many independent observers unsafe and unsound long-term commitment.
As part of the stress testing process the resilience of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as well as its adaptation to extreme impacts was tested. The safe operation of the nuclear power plant in the face of extreme external impacts was evaluated.
Consequences of natural phenomena were forecasted such as combinations of floods, extreme weather conditions and external impacts, consequences of the nuclear power plant’s losing safety functions due to the loss of external power. Belarus is about to finish preparing the relevant national report based on results of the stress tests. The report will be published, translated into English, and forwarded to the European Commission. A new ice age was, however, not part of the “forecasts”.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant is built using the Russian standard Generation III+ design AES-2006 near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.
In August 2017 the Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister, during a media tour dedicated to Russian – Belarusian interaction in nuclear energy said the nuclear power plant (NPP) project complies with all safety standards. He added that:
“Our top priority when building and operating the NPP is safety. … We are fully aware of our responsibility towards the Belarusian nation and the global community. We ensure safety at all stages of the projects implementation.”
Mikhadyuk claimed that “numerous cutting edge systems that guarantee the BelNPP’s safe operation” are made an integral part of the Generation III+ AES 2006 design. As of today WER-1200 is the most powerful reactor that has three advantages, he said. High efficiency, a long service life, and safety. He didn’t go into technical details about any of these three features.
The BelNPP operators are trained at a training center in Ostrovets and undertake internships in Russia. The NPP is built using the Russian Generation III+ AES 2006 design. It is being built in Ostrovets in Grodno Oblast (region). The first reactor is scheduled for commissioning in 2019 with the second reactor expected to go online in 2020.
What Mikhadyuk didn’t mention during his “tour for the press” was that compliance with safety standards doesn’t necessarily mean that something is inherently safe. The plans for the NPP, technical, financial, environmental or otherwise, don’t factor in the decommissioning of the plant.
Also missing in the “plan” are feasible plans how to safely store “spent fuel” and other highly radioactive and toxic “waste”. Some of this waste will have to be stored away – isolated from contact with the environment, for “tens of thousands of years”.
To put this into perspective – with Belarus being a predominantly Christian country – Jesus Christ was reportedly born 2019 years before the first reactor is scheduled to go online. Some of the waste will have to be completely isolated from the environment for 40,000 years.
The last major Ice Age, when much of Belarus was covered by glaciation, ended about 11,700 years ago and a new one will be coming long before hell freezes over. With regard to Mikhadyuk’s “tour for the press”, this newspaper hasn’t been impressed by the Belarusian “plan” or “safety standards”.
CH/L – nsnbc 21.09.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/21/belnpp-nuclear-power-plant-to-supply-25-of-belarus-electricity-but-it-wont-be-too-cheap-to-meter/
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