Russia To Build Research Nuclear Reactor In Belarus

What is known.

The Russian state corporation Rosatom will build a research nuclear reactor on the territory of Belarus. This is provided for in the intergovernmental memorandum, which was signed on January 29 in St. Petersburg by the director of Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, and the head of the State Committee for Science and Technology of Belarus, Siarhei Shlychkou. This was reported by the committee's press service.

It is noted that the countries are thus deepening strategic cooperation in the field of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and related high technologies.

Cooperation will be increased in several directions. One of them is the non-energy application of nuclear technology. For this purpose, a research nuclear reactor will be built in Belarus, as well as a complex of laboratories, a multifunctional irradiation center and a nuclear medicine center. It is reported that these will be both separate objects and those that will be part of the complex — the Center for Nuclear Research and Technology.

In addition, Rosatom plans to strengthen joint work with Belarus in nuclear medicine and the production of medical equipment, in the development of digitalization and telecommunications technologies. The Russian corporation also plans to modernize industrial enterprises in Belarus, including using robotics, additive technologies and composite materials.

The document also provides for joint work on the disposal of nuclear waste, eliminating environmental damage and creating a system where energy will be stored.

Important to note, Rosatom announced at the end of 2022 that it wanted to establish the production of lithium batteries in Belarus, and was looking for a base partner here. Moreover, we are talking not only about batteries for vehicles, but also about industrial energy storage systems.