На русском языке:
В Минске собираются запустить новый исследовательский ядерный реактор
На беларускай мове:
У Менску збіраюцца запусціць новы ядзерны рэактар
A new research nuclear reactor may be launched in Belarus. This was announced by Mikhail Zhemzhurov, the head of the laboratory of radiation and chemical studies of the environment of the Joint Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research «Sosny».
According to him, the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and the Russian corporation Rosatom are already discussing the construction of a nuclear reactor on the basis of the institute, which is located a few kilometers from the Minsk Beltway.
«Today, science faces new challenges to ensure the safe and efficient operation of nuclear energy, the development of nuclear and radiation technologies in our country. We believe that this requires an adequate scientific, experimental and production base with a multi-purpose research nuclear reactor. A national Center for Nuclear Research and Technology should be formed around it, in which a wide range of scientific and applied work will be carried out. Now we are actively working on the issues of creating such a center at the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Rosatom state corporation are discussing the construction of a research nuclear reactor on the basis of the Joint Institute for Energy and Nuclear Research – Sosny,» Zhemzhurov said.
It is reported that the research reactor will contribute to the development of nuclear energy, including scientific support for the Belarusian NPP.
In Soviet times, the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the Academy of Sciences of the BSSR functioned in Sosny, which was founded in 1965. According to the publication «The Village», the IRT-1000 research nuclear reactor was put into operation at the site of this institute, the capacity of which was subsequently increased to 4,000 kW (300 times less than the capacity of the first power unit of the Belarusian NPP). They also developed a mobile nuclear power plant «Pamir-630D» on the basis of the MAZ tractor, which was destroyed after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In 1992, the reactor in Sosny was shut down, and a little later the village became a part of Minsk.
