Belarus aiming to divert attention from Astravyets N-plant

“I personally have not yet received any inquiries, they are not on my table but we have heard about plans to send the questions. I believe this is merely a sham, the issue is totally out of proportion. Our nuclear plant has been shut down, no nuclear reactions take place there, it will be dismantled, the territory is fully cleansed. The situation in Belarus is entirely different – they are building a new nuclear power plant, which will feature reactions that will naturally be a hazard, if it is not built well,” the minister told BNS.

“Belarus is searching for ways to show that things are not going well in Lithuania to divert the attention from the actual problems they have,” he added.

Vitalijus Auglys, director of the Environment Ministry’s Pollution Prevention Department, told BNS on Tuesday that the ministry had received a letter from Belarus. In his words, the neighboring country is asking questions in response to Lithuania’s criticism of the Astravyets construction. Auglys said the Ignalina NPP issue cannot be linked with the Astravyets matters, as Lithuania is decommissioning its nuclear utility, while Belarus is building its.

Interfax news agency said on Tuesday that Belarus would turn to Lithuanian institutions for information about the course of decommissioning of the Ignalina NPP.

Lithuania has been criticizing Belarus for failure to meet with security standards in the Astravyets construction, while Minsk has dismissed the criticism as ungrounded.