The preliminary results were presented at premises of Gosatomnadzor on 31 May as part of the Belarus-IAEA agreement for the application of safeguards in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. ISSAS experts, representatives of Belarusian government agencies and organizations took part in the presentation.
The IAEA experts studied the organization of the system designed to keep records of and control nuclear materials in Belarus, the legal framework of this work, licensing requirements for using nuclear energy and sources of ionizing radiation, the organization of oversight. They visited the state enterprise Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, the joint energy and nuclear research institute Sosny of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, SZAO Isotope Technologies, the N.N. Aleksandrov National Applied Research Center for Oncology and Medical Radiology, and the Central Construction Lab of OAO Trest Belpromnaladka.
The ISSAS mission head Vladimir Cisar noted that Belarus has created and operates an infrastructure, which allows properly applying the guarantees: legislation has been developed, the relevant government agencies have been assigned, systems for accounting and control of nuclear materials, systems to counteract the illegal turnover of nuclear materials have been built. The ISSAS mission experts mentioned good practices in Belarus, submitted proposals and recommendations concerning further improvement of the activities in this field.
In line with the IAEA established procedure the ISSAS mission report will be ready within the next few months.
According to the IAEA, a State Systems of Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (ISSAS) mission covers all aspects of the implementation of safeguards, matters relating to export control, accounting for nuclear materials, the legal and regulatory frameworks for this work.
Countries make voluntary decisions to invite IAEA missions. The Belarusian Emergencies Ministry sent a request to send an ISSAS mission to Belarus in March 2018.
Written by minsk-region.gov.by