The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus issued a license on October 24 for the industrial operation of a second power unit at the Astravyets nuclear power plant.
The first energy block of Belarus’s only nuclear power plant was connected to the country’s power grid in November 2020, but its operation was suspended several times for repairs.
Built by the Russian state-owned firm Rosatom and financed by Moscow with a 10-billion-dollar loan, construction of the power plant near the city of Astravyets, in the western Hrodna region, was opposed by Lithuania, whose capital, Vilnius, is just 50 kilometres away.
Lithuania’s State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) has said that the Astravyets NPP second unit is going into industrial operation without having resolved all safety issues.
“Since the very beginning of the Belarusian NPP project implementation, Belarus has not provided specific information to Lithuanian authorities on how it selected the site for the construction of the nuclear power plant in Astravyets and assessed the distribution and density of the neighbouring Lithuanian population in the surrounding territory, which is a key nuclear safety issue for Lithuania,” the VATESI said on Wednesday.
About one third of the Lithuanian population could be affected in the event of radiological emergency at the Belarusian NPP, it added. An impact assessment should have been carried out in accordance with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) safety standards, according to the VATESI.
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