About 10 people killed at Astravets NPP construction -- civil activist


Accidents came one after another. And it is just at the stage of construction. The victim of the latest incident in the Astravets NPP was a worker from Russia, a 43-year-old fitter — an oxygen tank fell on him. Even before the tragedy was reported officially, it was reported by activist Mikalai Ulasevich from Astravets.

“According to my sources of information, there have been already ten such cases. The penultimate incident occurred sometime in April this year, when a woman died under the wheels of MAZ. She was 45-50 years old and registered transportation trips,” said Ulasevich.

 Security measures? Noone’s heard about them!

Finding the witnesses of the tragedy was not easy — people are afraid to speak on camera. But as our crew found out, the victim’s name was Natallia Hlazko, she was a mother of many children.

“As she checked a truck, the driver did not see her, and she accidentally got trapped under the wheels,” said Natallia’s neighbor.

Why is it that the safety and accident rate in the first big construction is at such, to put it mildly, low level? At the same time in April, hosting the IAEA Director General, the head of Belarus assured the distinguished guest of the high quality work on the construction site.

But the facts are not on the side of the head of Belarus. Over the last three months, the independent media, among them the “Belsat”, reported at least three accidents at the construction site in Astravets. The most notorious of them occurred in July, when the reactor body fell during an installation. But then again Mikalai Ulasevich was the first to report about it.

What do Belarusians think?

The residents of Minsk also complain about the non-transparency of the construction.

“They are still hiding it, even if there are some minor problems. This is, of course, a pity,” said a young man.

“Given the fact that no one knows what it is and how it is built, there are a lot of questions and distrust of the construction,” said the passer-by.

“Our builders made the project cheaper. It is clear that the same will happen with the NPP,” a woman assured us.

The neighboring Lithuania is particularly distrustful of the project, and it is based upon facts: the Belarusian nuclear power plant is to appear in just 50 kilometers away from Vilnius. Lithuania has repeatedly suggested the official Minsk to establish a group of international experts who would control the security of the station. However, the official Minsk is not expecting experts from outside and is keeping diplomatic silence about many questions from the Lithuanian side.

Ales Yashchanka, “Belsat”, photo – belapan.by

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