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VIENNA, 19 September (BelTA) – Belarus will submit the national report on stress tests of the nuclear power plant to the European Commission in October 2017, Belarusian Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadyuk told journalists on the sidelines of the 61st session of the IAEA General Conference, BelTA has learned.

"We held several consultations on the independent review of our national report on stress tests with the European Commission. Gosatomnadzor, the national nuclear regulatory authority, is currently finalizing the national report. We will submit it to the European Commission for independent review in October," Mikhail Mikhadyuk said.

According to him, the time frame and the review procedure were discussed with Gerassimos Thomas, European Commission Deputy Director General for Energy, during the meeting at the IAEA on 18 September. "We agreed on all the matters," Mikhail Mikhadyuk stated.

Belarus stress tested its nuclear power plant in 2016 using European methods and taking into account recommendations based on the European Commission’s and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group’s (ENSREG) specifications. As part of the stress testing process the resilience of the Belarusian nuclear power plant as well as its adaptation to extreme impacts was tested. The safe operation of the nuclear power plant in the face of extreme external impacts was evaluated. Consequences of natural phenomena were forecast such as combinations of floods, extreme weather conditions and external impacts, consequences of the nuclear power plant’s losing safety functions due to the loss of external power.

The Belarusian nuclear power plant is built using the Russian standard 3+ generation design AES-2006 near Ostrovets, Grodno Oblast. The first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2019, with the second one to go online in 2020.