MINSK, May 11. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a law on ratification of an agreement with Russia on the management of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), which provides for its reprocessing in Russia, according to the relevant document published on Thursday.

"The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus will take the necessary measures to implement the provisions of the agreement," the document reads.

The bill was adopted in one reading by the members of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus on April 18 and approved by the country’s Council a day later. The law, signed by Lukashenko, is dated May 5.

The intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the sphere of SNF management, stipulated by the Union State energy program, was signed by Belarusian Energy Minister Viktor Karankevich and Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev in Sochi in late November 2022. The document establishes a mechanism for the import of irradiated nuclear reactor fuel assemblies to Russia for temporary technological storage with subsequent processing, and also for the return of radioactive waste to Belarus. Minsk guarantees the acceptance of radioactive waste and the readiness of the relevant infrastructure. The agreement will make it possible to reduce the volume of radioactive waste as a result of its processing in comparison with direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel.