Lithuanian delegation to visit Minsk to discuss EIA report 18 June

A delegation of Lithuania will visit Minsk on 18 June for the consultations on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the would-be Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP), BelTA learnt from Alexander Andreev, chief of the state environmental review department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of Belarus.

The Lithuanian delegation will include experts of the ministries of environmental protection, power engineering, agency for environmental protection, environmental protection commission of the Lithuania Seim, radiation security department of the state nuclear safety inspectorate and also Lithuania geology services, R&D institutions and centers. Belarus will be represented by specialists of the NPP construction directorate, ministries of energy, natural resources and environmental protection, healthcare, emergency situations, the National Academy of Sciences.

Belarus has sent Lithuania a preliminary EIA report, held public debates. Lithuania has voiced its remarks and proposals. “The Lithuanian colleagues are mainly concerned with the choice of the site. We hope that all issues will be settled during the forthcoming negotiations. We are ready to answer any questions of Lithuanian specialists,” Alexander Andreev said.

Consultations on the EIA report will be held with Ukrainian in June too. “This meeting is schedule for 28 June. Now we are discussing the venue,” Alexander Andreev informed.

Speaking about the consultations recently held in Poland, Alexander Andreev noted that “the Polish experts had all their questions answered.” Ukraine and Lithuania are the last two countries with which Belarus needs to coordinate the EIA report.

Belarus will fine-tune the final version of the EIA taking into account the proposals and recommendations of the countries concerned. Only after that the EIA will be sent for state environmental review.

An EIA report contains the environmental, social and economic description of a nuclear power plant site, a report on its compliance with natural and ecological criteria, the characteristics of the nuclear power plant, preliminary analysis of its impact on the environment and other data. The assessment has been performed in accordance with the legislation of Belarus including with the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and also in line with the IAEA recommendations. The EIA report is based on the results of the research into the state of the environment conducted in 2009, design and survey works which were done as the site was selected. The assessment describes the aggregate impact of the NPP facilities on the environment, on the social and economic conditions and health of people.

Belarus has plans to construct a nuclear power plant of the 2,400MW capacity in the Grodno oblast (Ostrovetskaya site). The first power unit will be put into operation in 2016, the second one – in 2018. The plant will be built under the project of Saint Petersburg Atomenergoprojekt Institute. General contractor will be Atomstroyexport, a state-owned engineering company regulated by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom). Atomstroyexport constructs about 20% of the world’s nuclear plants.

Source: BelTA