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(without the reactor or fuel rods) stands in a field there to this day, where it has been used as the venue for the Kazantip summer musical festivals.
More specifically, Ostrovets detractors have claimed that the plant does not meet EU safety standards or regulatory norms.
The plant is based on pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology, which are used in two thirds of all nuclear power stations in the world. In the 65 years the PWR reactors have been in use IAEA has never reported an accident or a single loss of life associated with them.
PWRs have come to dominate the business, which has gone through several generations of development. Russia claims that its water-water energetic reactor (VVER, using its Russian acronym), with the 1200-MW version being the latest generation
of this technology, and the one being installed in the Belarusian facility, is the best in the business.
“VVER-1200 belongs to the latest generation of reactors which meet the strictest post-Fukushima requirements,” Rosatom says. “Indeed, it’s now the most common new build design in the world, with 36 power units being selected by utilities and watchdogs in 12 countries including Finland, Hungary, China, India and Turkey.”
Rosatom’s VVER-1200 reactor is fully certified by the European Utility Requirements (EUR) organisation
and both the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG), an independent, expert advisory group created by the European Commission, and the IAEA have acknowledged the safety features of the VVER-1200 reactor series fully comply with European requirements.
“Its core design has [a] state-of-the-art safety system, including advanced cooling reliability and built-in passive safety systems with a 72-hour grace period that requires no operator intervention after shutdown. This model falls under Generation 3+ reactors designed precisely
on the basis of lessons learned in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster,” says Alexander Uvarov, a Russian nuclear expert and the editor-in-chief of nuclear news site AtomInfo.ru.
International inspectors double checking from the start
The construction of Ostrovets has been under international supervision since the beginning, as the Belarusians are as keen as the Lithuanians to make sure the reactor is as safe to use as possible. Although the city of Pripyat, where the Chernobyl reactor was located, was
in Ukraine, it was Belarus’ southern regions that were in the path of the deadly radioactive cloud and took the brunt of the damage.
The project has been thoroughly reviewed by international inspectors and in 2016 the IAEA’s then Director- General, Yukiya Amano, called Belarus one of the most advanced nuclear “newcomer countries” in the world.
“The IAEA has worked closely with Belarus on all aspects of this major project and will continue to offer every assistance,” Amano said during an inspection trip to the site in 2016.
The IAEA made various evaluations of the project’s safety in 2012 and 2016 as well
and experts have visited the facility since it was opened to visitors in December 2015 and the progress showcased at the annual Atomexpo-Belarus in Minsk.
Even the Lithuanians have been invited. A Lithuanian delegation visited the
plant on July 9, 2018 as part of a delegation of EU and non-EU experts, which concluded the Belarusian nuclear power plant has "generally” met the requirements of a European Union "stress test" designed to avert repeats of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, Euronews reports. Yet the thorniest issue of the
site – it is less than 50 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital – remains an point of conflict and controversy – despite
the fact that there is no regulation or recommendation from IAEA banning nuclear power plants within a specified radius from densely populated areas. The 1994 IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS), which is the current and most up-to-date legally binding set of regulations in this area, does not specify any requirements regarding distances between nuclear power plants and cities.
Most recently, in August 2019 the IAEA sent a 15-member Pre-Operational Safety Review Team, composed of IAEA officials and experts from Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia and the US, on an
“VVER-1200 belongs to the latest generation of reactors which meet the strictest post- Fukushima requirements”
as assessing the danger from catastrophic floods and earthquakes (a Site and External Events Design study) in 2017. Most recently Belarus voluntarily agreed to conduct EU nuclear safety ‘stress-tests’ in 2017 and 2018 and to allow the results to be peer-reviewed by the EU nuclear safety body ENSREG, which confirmed the plant could withstand the most extreme natural calamities.
Throughout the construction of the plant the project has been open to inspection and hundreds of journalists
18-day mission to assist in strengthening the plant’s operational safety as the construction moved into its final phases.
Black swan risks
Still, Lithuania remains unconvinced and points to the “Gudogai earthquake” in 1908 as one of their main concerns that reportedly reached 7 on the Richter scale, located on a farm close to the site of the Ostrovets NPP.
But questions hang over this incident. The town's railway and local churches were
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