Lithuanian minister to Belsat: ‘We need accurate information about incidents at Belarus NPP’
The fact that Minsk is trying to stonewall any incident at the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravets is Lithuania’s major concern, Environment Minister Kęstutis Trečiokas said in an interview with Belsat.
What is your take on the recent incident at the Belarusian NPP construction site?
My assessment is negative, because the fall of a part of the reactor vessel, or just an important technological part even from a height of 10 cm is an emergency situation. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the incident took place as far back as July 10, but we learned about it from independent media reports.
The Belarusian side has recognized that there was sort of incident. But they fail to specify how serious it was. It was two weeeks later when we got wind of the incident. What is the worst that the nation itself and our neighbors were not informed of it.
It is a clear violation of the Aarhus Convention – and Belarus signed it. According to the convention, its sides enter into a commitment to report such incidents. If something like that occured when the reactor was in operation, it would result in a great trouble. Now it is known that there was no hazard either to environment or people’s health. But we do not know what violations took place earlier or what will happen during the installalation of the unit. I do not think that we can be unalarmed about it.
How do you feel about the Belarusian side’s trying to mask any kinds of violations and incidents while constructing the NPP? Is it acceptable in the world practice?
I am not an expert in this field, but taking into account all that I hear and see and what we discuss at the EU level, I have to say something. Nuclear power industry is developed in Hungary, Belgium and Finland. But its development is under the supervision of international experts there. Each incident is assessed by experts and it becomes clear how much it is dangerous, what possible risks are, how to neutralize or avoid them.
But if it goes on behind closed doors, behind high fences, there is something artificial in the air, which should be avoided. I hope that our official notes and the Belarusian NPP’s coming into public eye will result in the fact that we will no longer try to imagine whether an incident that happened two weeks ago is dangerous. We just need information – accurate and timely information.
As reported earlier, during installation the enclosure of the future reactor fell from the height of 2 – 4 meters at the construction site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravets (Hrodna region).
On Thursday Lithuania’s government handed a note to the Belarusian Embassy over the incident. Vilnius also asked Brussels for involvement of the European Union in the matter.
Lithuania is the main critic of the idea of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is only 20 km from the border and 50 km from Vilnius. Minsk rejects Lthuania’s claims, arguing that nuclear power plants will have high safety standards.
