Belarusian NPP Personnel Under Radiation Exposure

The time of the incident coincided with the "scheduled preventive maintenance".

Personnel of the Belarusian NPP were got under radiation exposure. This happened in April 2022. Information about the incident was not published.

Judging by the information available to the editors of the Euroradio, the incident was reported through internal channels between 17 and 29 April.

The “scheduled preventive maintenance” coincided with the incident, for which the first power unit of the Belarusian NPP was shut down at the end of April. It was planned that it would last about 80 days. They were going to change nuclear fuel for the first time at the NPP.

However, contrary to the announced plans, the reactor was shut down for six months it was returned to the power only on November 9th.

How did we find out about the incident?

The contents of several thousand such appeals became available due to the system weaknesses of electronic appeals to government agencies operating in Belarus. We found a letter sent to the BelNPP on behalf of NeftekhimDiagnostics LLC among them. In the column "Applicant's email address" we see the address filipovets@bk.ru. Raman Alehavich Filipavets is the head of NefteKhimDiagnostics LLC.

"Application - warning on personnel radioactive exposure" the subject of the appeal reads. The main text of the application reads that the video of the moment of exposure of people was sent to the e-mail belaes@belaes.by. This is the official contact email of the BelNPP administration.

The system of appeals under consideration is integrated into the websites of state bodies. Including on the BelNPP website. To send a request, please fill out the following form:

Currently, the weakness is resolved, access to the content of appeals sent to state bodies is restricted. However, the appeal to the BelNPP can still be found in the web archive.

What does NefteKhimDiagnostics do?

The company specializes in the repair and maintenance of technological equipment and units at hazardous production facilities. It operates throughout Belarus.

Among the activities listed on the NeftekhimDiagnostics website are technical diagnostics of process equipment operated at hazardous and potentially hazardous facilities.

We did not find direct links between the Belarusian NPP and NefteKhimDiagnostics LLC. However, the company employees could really detect the exposure of personnel at a nuclear power plant. The NefteKhimDiagnostics website says that, among other things, it provides services for the energy enterprises of the Republic of Belarus.

What they say at the BelNPP and at the NefteKhimDiagnostics

The Information Center of the Nuclear Power Plant could not unequivocally tell us whether there was exposure or not.

“If there was such a request then Radiation Safety Department was involved in the request operations if there was such a request. I am not sure. And what kind of radiation could there be?” they ask us and offer to write an official request on the topic.

The journalists got through to the director of NeftekhimDiagnostics, Raman Filipavets. After our question about radiation exposure, he thought for a while. And then asked to contact him later:

“It’s not very comfortable for me to talk. Can you write to me? And I will answer you when I get in touch.

Later, he suggested that we meet “after the New Year holidays”, “to analyze all these issues in detail”, “to look through the papers and discuss everything”.

What could have happened?

We have to consider other versions in addition to the obvious version of an emergency in the operation of the Nuclear Power Plant. After all, it is not clear from the appeal the personnel of which organization we are talking about. Not only the employees of the BelNPP but also the employees of NefteKhimDiagnostics could get under radiation exposure. For example, nuclear physicist Andrei Azharouski comments on the situation with gamma-ray flaw detection.

Gamma flaw detection is a way to search for defects using radiation. Such diagnostics can be carried out at nuclear power plants. The NefteKhimDiagnostics has certification for radiographic flaw detection.

“An exposure could have happened while working with oil pipes. The pipes can deposit thorium and uranium. That is, it is not necessarily due to the operation of the Nuclear Power Plant,” Ozharovsky adds.

It is also not yet clear whether the exposure is related to the protracted repairs at the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant.