Nuclear industry experts of Belarus and Poland to exchange experience

Nuclear industry experts of Belarus and Poland are set to exchange experience on an annual basis, Oleg Sobolev, the head of the public information office at the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department (Gosatomnadzor) of the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus, told BelTA.

“Belarus is interested in the experience of the Polish regulatory body in receiving the IAEA mission on the integrated assessment of regulatory infrastructure (IRRS mission), which Belarus is scheduled to host in 2016,” Oleg Sobolev said.

From 26 to 28 May Belarus hosted a delegation of the National Atomic Energy Agency of Poland (PAA) headed by its President Janusz Wlodarski. The visit was organized within the framework of the agreement between the governments of Belarus and Poland on early notification of a nuclear accident and cooperation in radiation safety.

Poland took a decision to build its own nuclear power plant (NPP). In this connection the PAA would like to study Belarus’ NPP construction licensing practices, inspection programs at the stage of construction, staff training, and development of emergency response plans.

On 27 May the Polish delegation visited the construction site of the nuclear power plant in Ostrovets and the Belarusian NPP information center. The PAA delegation got familiar with the status of construction and the supervision practices at the stage of construction.

For their part, the Polish guests informed their Belarusian colleagues about the work carried out in Poland in the area of radiation monitoring on the ground and also outside of nuclear units, about the basic nuclear safety requirements and the public awareness activities and programs.