Belarusian nuclear station to stay operational for at least 60 years

The Belarusian nuclear power plant will be used for at least 60 years. The information was released by Mr Nikolai Grusha, Director of the Nuclear Energy Department of the Belarusian Energy Ministry, during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 22 March.

“It is remarkable that in accordance with the accepted international practice the money required to decommission the station is collected as part of the electricity tariff and thus the power plant can earn the money required to decommission it in the future,” said the expert.

Taking into account Russian standards the investment consideration provides for setting the deductions to decommission the power plant as high as 1.3% of the prime cost of electricity. The money cannot be spent on purposes other than the decommissioning of the power plant.

According to the USA Council for National Resources and the International Atomic Energy Agency, decommissioning a nuclear power plant is estimated at 30-50% of the power plant’s construction cost.