Lithuania vice minister: I don’t know where Belarus will sell Astravets NPP energy
Two additional reactors may appear at the nuclear power plant in Astravets in the future, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov said.
In response, Lithuanian Vice Minister of Energy Simonas Šatūnas noted that even the two reactors being built might cause sort of a spillover effect, delfi.lt reports.
“Implementing its own law, Lithuania will not let electricity from an unsafe NPP [through the country], and I really do not know to which country Belarus could deliver it except that the Russian market,” the top official said.
According to the vice minister, as Belarus failed to furnish partners with proper information, the cost of electricity from the Belarusian NPP is still uncertain.
Simonas Šatūnas also raised the question of nuclear waste storage facilities.
“As the experience of Sweden shows, processing nuclear waste is very expensive. Sometimes it is almost half the cost of the development of a nuclear power station,” he added.
As reported on Friday, Russia’s envoy Surikov left open the possibility of constructing two more reactors at the Belarusian NPP and doubling its capacity ‘if the conditions were favourable’.
- Another accident at Astravets NPP. Energy Ministry confirms rumors
- Incident at Astravets NPP construction site: State-run mass media silent
- About 10 people killed at Astravets NPP construction — civil activist
The Lithuanian side has repeatedly criticized the construction of the nuclear power plant 50 kilometers from Vilnius and encouraged the rest of the countries of the United Europe to not buy electricity from the future NPP.
Lithuania is not only concerned about the proximity of the station to Vilnius, but also with a number of emergencies during the NPP construction.
Among the emergencies are a reactor vessel accident, when it fell during the transportation, the collapse of the concrete structure at the site between the reactors. Our channel was the first to report on the incident. Before the official request of the Lithuanian side, representatives of the Belarusian NPP denied this information.
