Sosnovy Bor nuclear scientists have visited Tihange NPP (Belgium) as a part of the Russian delegation

Апреля 13, 2011

Sosnovy Bor nuclear scientists, as a part of the Russian delegation, have come back from Belgium, where they visited one of the two Belgian nuclear power plants – Tihange. The visit to the NPP, as well as Nuclear Research Centre was organized by Rosatom State Corporation in order to review the experience of Belgium’s nuclear facilities operation and implementation of environmental and social programs in the territories of their location.

In the course of the press conference which took place in Sosnovy Bor on March 31, Sosnovy Bor inhabitants, including Head of Sosnovy Bor district Dmitry Pulyaevsky, Head of the City Administration Vladislav Golikov, Head of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Safety Department of LNPP Natalya Malevannaya and Sosnovy Bor environmental community representatives shared their impressions of the trip.
Tihange nuclear power plant operates three power units. About 100 thousand people live in 17 municipal formations located around the NPP. According to the trip participants, they were impressed by the fact that the nuclear power plant evaporative cooling towers looked as a part of the local landscape, nature flourishes around. At a 300 meter distance from the towers there are the nearest dwelling houses; one of them belongs to the President of the French association of ecologists.
In the course of communication the Russian party asked a number of questions concerning social security of the population and the NPP share in the municipal budget. There is no notion of a privilege as such in Europe, but there is a 30% discount from electric power cost under the night tariff for the NPP employees. NPP tax share in the municipal budget is equal to 35%.
The second place visited by the delegation in Belgium was an underground laboratory of the research centre, where the Russians learned about 30-year results of the work at creation of an underground radioactive waste storage.
Upon the whole the trip participants were satisfied with what they had seen and thanked Rosatom State Corporation for the opportunity of studying the foreign experience of nuclear facilities operation.