Belarusan authorities affirm their readiness to build a second nuclear power plant

Belarus is ready to consider the suggestions of the investors who will be determined to invest in the second Belarusan NPP construction project.

Some 400 people, including at least about 100 Lithuanian nationals, attended the public hearings on the Belarusian government’s report on the possible environmental impact of the nuclear power plant which took place in Astravets, Hrodna region, on August 17. Top government officials, including Vital Kulik, deputy minister of natural resources and environmental protection, and Deputy Energy Minister Mikhail Mikhadzyuk were also present.

While opening the event, Mr. Kulik insisted that Belarus had observed all formalities required by the UN Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention).

During the hearing Mikhail Mikhadzyuk stated that Belarus is ready to consider the suggestions of the investors who will be determined to invest in the second Belarusan NPP construction project. It was a response to the request for comment on the statement made by Aliaksandr Lukashenka earlier, when Belarusan President stated about the possibility to build yet another nuclear power plant in Belarus.

 “But before we make such a decision, we should check whether the investor has the money and a market to sell the electricity, and observe all international formalities that we observed regarding the nuclear power plant currently under construction,” –  emphasized Mikhadzyuk, adding that Lithuania also got the suggestion to participate in the development of nuclear power engineering in Belarus.

However, despite the fact that Belarus is ready to deploy another large-scale energy project, “Minsk had not received any offers from potential investors so far”, cites BelaPAN Mikhadzyuk’s words. Asked why the Belarusian government was so proud of its nuclear power program at a time when many European countries were shutting down their nuclear facilities, the deputy minister said that the latter was not true. Only rich countries can afford to have no nuclear power plants, he said.

Mr. Mikhadzyuk described power generated by nuclear facilities as the cheapest form of electricity. According to him, only Germany and a “couple of more European countries” have announced their plans to close down all of their nuclear power plants.

Let us recall that the Lithuanian NGOs announced about the boycott of the event, condemning it as a “mock” public hearing and calling on the Belarusian government to suspend the plant construction before assessing its possible environmental impact as required by the Espoo Convention.

At the same time, not everyone in Lithuania think that the construction of Belarusan NPP within about fifty kilometres from Vilnius is a bad idea, reports 15min.lt. Thus, people from Visaginas, a town built as a satellite settlement to the now shut-down Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, expressed support to the Astravets nuclear facility. “Visaginas looks on Astravets with admiring envy. If anyone is dissatisfied that a nuclear power plant is being built here, we could exchange apartments,” – Oleg Davydiuk, a resident of Visaginas, said during the discussion.

Mikhail Mikhadzyuk also mentioned that the former staff of Lithuania’s Ignalina nuclear power plant may be offered jobs at Belarus’ nuclear power facility. “We know that we have received some 200 applications from former employees of the Ignalina nuclear power plant. We will be considering each of the applications attentively”.

The deputy minister said that the future plant’s management would start hiring personnel soon. “We will be recruiting not the entire staff at once but on an as-needed basis,” he said.

The problem of safety was also raised at the public hearings. Thus, Jakau Kenihsberh, head of the Radiation Safety Laboratory at the National Research Center for Hygiene, said that lessons learned from past nuclear accidents will be taken into account in the construction of Belarus’ first-ever nuclear plant. He stressed that the designers of the plant had taken into account the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, and considered a variety of accident scenarios as required by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Our country has taken obligations to observe all IAEA documents,” reports BelaPAN his words.

The official said that the facility would be located 25 kilometres off the Lithuanian border and 53 kilometres away from Vilnius. He noted that building nuclear power plants close to major cities was a widely accepted practice in Western Europe.

Mr. Kenihsberh criticized Lithuania for refusing to sign a bilateral agreement on nuclear accident reporting and the exchange of information and cooperation in the sphere of nuclear safety and radiation protection. “The draft agreement was sent to Lithuania more than two years ago. There has been no reply so far,” he said.