Belarus will be able to diversify the supplies of nuclear fuel given economic efficiency, Director of the Department for Nuclear Power Engineering of Belarus Nikolai Grusha told reporters on 23 March.

Belarus-Russia intergovernmental agreement guarantees fuel supplies during the whole service life of the nuclear power plant and the return of spent fuel back to Russia. “This does not mean, however, that we will not consider opportunities of diversifying supplies if it is economically viable,” Nikolai Grusha said.

He noted that China has already installed two power generating units of Russian manufacture. According to the bilateral agreements, Russia also provides nuclear fuel manufacturing technologies. “Fuel assembly at the Belarusian unit will not differ from that in China,” the official said.

Nuclear fuel is also delivered to the Soviet-time power generating units in the Czech Republic and Ukraine. Moreover, Ukraine plans to launch the production of a complete cycle of fuel assemblies. According to the Belarusian official, Ukraine has its own deposits of uranium, zirconium and other materials necessary for the production of fuel assembly elements.

Thus, there is a potential for diversifying fresh fuel supplies. Another thing is that Russia will not take the spent fuel of other suppliers, Nikolai Grusha added.