Deputies ratify agreement between Belarus and Russia on spent nuclear fuel

The deputies adopted a draft law "On ratification of the agreement between the government of Belarus and the government of the Russian Federation on cooperation in spent nuclear fuel handling" at the seventh session of the House of Representatives, BelTA informs.

The draft law was submitted to the House of Representatives by the Council of Ministers on March 7. It is designed to ratify the agreement between the government of Belarus and the government of Russia on cooperation in spent nuclear fuel management, signed in Sochi on November 21, 2022.

The subject matter of the agreement is the import of irradiated fuel assemblies of nuclear reactors to the Russian Federation for temporary technological storage with subsequent reprocessing, as well as the return of radioactive waste to the Republic of Belarus. Irradiated fuel assemblies of nuclear reactors mean Russian-made fuel assemblies irradiated in the nuclear reactor of a nuclear power plant constructed in the territory of the Republic of Belarus and extracted from it, and containing nuclear fuel.

Cooperation under the agreement will require licenses (permits). According to the agreement, the competent authorities include the Belarusian Ministry of Energy and the State Atomic Energy Corporation "Rosatom".

The competent authorities are appointed by the relevant authorized organizations. The agreement stipulates that for the purpose of transportation of irradiated fuel assemblies and their subsequent reprocessing, agreements (contracts) are concluded between the authorized organizations. In particular, the said agreements (contracts) define the scope of cooperation, rights and obligations of the authorized and involved organizations and other conditions of cooperation.

According to the agreement, the competent body of Belarus is authorized, according to the procedure established by the Belarus law, to make decisions on the export of each batch of irradiated fuel assemblies of nuclear reactors to Russia with the subsequent return of radioactive waste to Belarus.