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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania has received an answer from the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano to the letter of Lithuania’s Foreign Minister and the Minister of Energy of 3 January 2017. In the letter, Lithuania expressed its concerns over the recurring incidents at the Astravets nuclear power plant (NPP). Once again, Lithuania set out its requirements to Belarus: to invite the Site and External Events Design (SEED) mission of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a full-scope assessment review of the site and design safety, as well as to carry out risk and safety assessment tests (the stress tests) at the Astravets NPP. Lithuania also requested Belarus to ensure international supervision of the Astravets NPP.

The IAEA representatives confirmed that Belarus was hosting an incomplete IAEA SEED mission on 16-20 January. The host country has decided on the scope of the mission, rather than the IAEA. Therefore, the reports that the scope of the mission was decided not by Belarus, but by the IAEA, do not correspond to reality.

“We are very concerned that Belarus applies nuclear safety standards selectively. This is unacceptable,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius.

“Belarus has skipped the assessment of the site and invited the IAEA SEED mission, which is likely to be limited to the assessment of the NPP design safety. The IAEA SEED mission is to assess only those modules that were selected by Belarus. The country will then publicly disseminate information about the positive findings thus misleading both its own society and foreign countries,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister noted that the selective application of nuclear safety standards implied a conclusion that the Astravets NPP developers had something to hide.

Although Lithuania called on Belarus to invite the SEED mission for a full-scope assessment review of the site and design safety, the selection criteria of the construction site and its suitability, the scope of the ongoing mission in Belarus is likely to be limited to the assessment of the NPP design safety.

Lithuania draws attention to the fact that the IAEA SEED mission will not analyse such key issues as criteria for the site selection, environmental impact assessment, or whether and if yes, then how seismic surveys were carried out.

Since 2013, Lithuania has constantly requested Belarus to carry out a full-scope IAEA SEED mission. In the meetings with Belarusian officials and in its diplomatic correspondence, Lithuania has constantly asked Belarus to provide information when and in what scope the country would invite the IAEA SEED mission, but there was no official response. Belarus also ignored repeated requests to include Lithuanian experts in the team that  carried out this mission. Not only Lithuania, but also the international organizations called on Belarus to invite the IAEA SEED mission to ensure the safety of the Astravets NPP – this recommendation was issued by the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention and the Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety in 2014.