Yaroslav Bekish: Construction of the nuclear power plant will make Belarus more dependent on Russia

Despite the fact that Belarus and Russia have signed a contract agreement for the construction of the first stage of the NPP in Belarus, still many issues have remained unsolved. As stated by Lithuanian Ambassador to Belarus Edminas Bagdonas, Lithuania does not consider resolved the situation as for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Belarussian nuclear plant, and the public hearings in Vilnius which took place two years ago haven’t actually been valid because there wasn’t any specific expert advice on them.

Moreover, Lithuania has filed a complaint with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), since the choice of the place for construction of the NPP the Lithuanian side believes to be politically motivated and considers this choice not to give possibility for further cooperation between Belarus and Lithuania in the energy sector.

- Lithuania has well-grounded reasons to be exasperated by the quality and adequacy of procedures for conducting the EIA, - comments upon Yaroslav Bekish, coordinator of environmental association "Green Network". - Both Belarussian and international experts have pointed out that the EIA procedures of the Belarussian NPP have been conducted with serious procedural violations, that is, currently this issue should be open for public discussion. And it was not opened completely, but only partially, herewith the issues opened for discussion were rather minor as to judge the quality of the whole document.

Both Lithuania and the "Green Network" insist on the document to be altered in accordance with the established policies and procedures.

- We stand for curtailing nuclear programs all around the world, and particularly in Belarus, - says Yaroslav Bekish. - We believe nuclear energy to be unhelpful and unnecessarily risky way of emitting energy. The Belarusian NPP has additional disadvantages associated with the economic aspects of the construction of this object, with the unfortunate choice of place for building the plant in terms of geodesy, geopolitics and the environment, because the Ostrovets district is one of the most clean, reserve places of Belarus.

Coordinator of the "Green network" believes that the EIA was carried out improperly, and it would be a right decision to alter it. In principle, decisions on construction of facilities such as nuclear power plant, must be taken not by a presidential decree, but a country should, at least, conduct a local referendum, but better - a nationwide one.

According to Yaroslav Bekish, the funds aimed at construction of a nuclear power station, for Belarus it would have been much better, from the economic point of view, to invest in programs of improving energy efficiency and promoting renewable energy sources. The nuclear lobby goes along with the pro-Russian lobby in the Belarusian economy, and it is not totally worth considering it as an advantage, because our country is already at the highest level of dependence on Russia.
 

Yulia Inysheva, Information service of "EUROBELARUS"