Safety is the main priority of the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction project, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at Tuesday’s meeting with Yukiya Amano, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
“I would like you to visit the construction site and make sure of the priorities that we pursue while building the nuclear power plant. The safety of the NPP is the main priority. All countries having technologies for the construction of nuclear power plants made corresponding conclusions from the consequences of the Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenka as saying.
The Belarusian leader also guaranteed the safety storage of nuclear materials.
“We will do our best to ensure the absolute protection of these materials so that no one could even make an attempt to take possession of such nuclear materials for the sake of terrorism,” he stressed.
Read also: Waste from Astravets NPP to be stored in Belarus for 10 years
It should be recalled that the project faced opposition at home and abroad on both safety and political grounds. Lithuania reiterates that the Belarusian NPP which is under construction in Astravets, some 50km from Vilnius, must comply with all Espoo Convention and nuclear safety requirements.
Last week, EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete promised Lithuania that the assession of the Astravets NPP’s impact on the environmental conditions would be properly made.
The NPP first power-generating unit is scheduled for commissioning in 2018, the second one – in 2020. The construction of two nuclear reactors is provided in the agreement reached by Belarus and Russia, the reactors being supplied by Atomstroyexport, Russia.
Read also: Construction supervisors stealing cement, superiors stealing budget money – Astravets NPP builder
Belsat.eu, following BelTA
