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In the letter of 31th of October, 2022 addressed to the Belarusian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), which acts in Belarus as nuclear safety regulator, the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) once again calls to suspend operation of Unit 1 and commissioning of Unit 2 of Belarusian NPP in order to immediately resolve safety issues.

"We do not receive information about the safety improvement measures implemented during the planned maintenance of the Unit 1 of the Belarusian NPP and the construction and commissioning of the Unit 2, therefore Lithuania's position does not change - the Belarusian NPP must not be operated until all safety issues are resolved," says VATESI Head Michail Demčenko.

Most of the long-standing issues of ensuring nuclear safety have not been resolved so far. VATESI in the letter to the MES reminded still the lack of specific information of the nuclear power plant construction site selection and evaluation, NPP equipment resistance to seismic events and to the effects of a large civil aircraft crash, implementation of stress tests recommendations, probabilistic safety assessment, fire hazard analysis and other safety assessment issues. Also, there is no clarification regarding authorized discharge limits for the Unit 1, explanation and details of the abnormal events since the beginning of commissioning and the status of related safety significant systems. The regulator has still not agreed on the final safety analysis report of the Unit 1, although the industrial operation of this unit has long been started. VATESI also calls on the MES and other responsible Belarusian authorities to publish all international expert mission recommendations (e.g. Pre-OSART) and their implementation results and once again reminded MES to provide additional information, which is necessary for more accurate forecasting of releases during possible accidents.

This letter also sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the European Commission, the President of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, the Chairs of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and the Western European Nuclear Safety Regulators Association (WENRA).