European Experts To Visit Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant In February -Emergencies Ministry

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2021) The visit of European experts to the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) will start on February 8, Oleg Sobolev, a consultant for the Department for Nuclear and Radiation Safety of the Ministry for Emergency Situations of Belarus (Gosatomnadzor), said on Wednesday.

Earlier in January, a source in the EU told Sputnik that representatives of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) planned to visit the Belarusian NPP with an assessment in the second week of February. Prior to that, a European inspection was planned for December 2020, but the visit was eventually canceled.

"A technical visit of European experts to the Belarusian nuclear power plant to review our national action plan following the results of stress tests is planned to start from February 8," Sobolev said, as quoted by the Belta news agency.

Sobolev noted that during the visit, European experts would get acquainted with the security system and documentation.

The Belarusian NPP is a joint Russian-Belarusian project, with the construction under the supervision of a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear agency. The plant has two reactors with a combined capacity of 2,400 Megawatt. The first unit is expected to become fully operational by March of this year, and the second one in 2022.