News

As Belarus has announced about the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) alleged approval of the development of the Belarusian nuclear power plant (NPP) project, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania draws attention to the fact that the visit of the IAEA’s Director General Yukiya Amano to Belarus on 18-20 April, which Belarus aims to present as a confirmation that the Belarusian NPP project meets the IAEA safety standards, was a political courtesy visit rather than an experts’ mission to assess the project’s compliance with the international nuclear safety requirements and the national legislation’s compliance with the IAEA’s safety standards.

After the visit to Belarus, the IAEA’s Director General has not provided any estimates about the development of the Belarusian NPP project, only stated that Belarus was another country, which had started developing its nuclear programme. When acknowledging that the Belarusian NPP project was being extremely urgently implemented, Amano also stressed that Belarus must operate transparently and openly, maintain a dialogue between the country’s public authorities and civil society as well as collaborate closely with the IAEA and neighbouring countries.

Lithuania calls on Belarus to collaborate more closely with the IAEA and urges the country to ensure that the NPP in Astravets is constructed in strict adherence to the IAEA’s nuclear safety standards. The visit of the IAEA’s Director General to Belarus was a very necessary one and Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry expects that on the basis of it, Belarus will invite the IAEA’s expert missions to evaluate the NPP project and the construction site in Astravets, and will finally answer the questions on the safety of this project that have been raised by Lithuania since 2009. Lithuania calls on Belarus to immediately request the IAEA to carry out its full Site and External Events Design (SEED) review mission.  Belarus is urged to do this also by the European Union, the Meeting of the Parties to the Espoo Convention and the Review Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Nuclear Safety. However, in spite of numerous statements by Belarus that the SEED review mission was invited, no specific date has been set so far for this mission, nor is there any working plan.

Lithuania also urges Belarus, without further delay, to carry out stress tests on the Astravets NPP, following the commitment of 23 June 2011 to undertake comprehensive risk and safety assessments (stress tests) by signing a special declaration with the European Commission.

Also for an objective expert analysis of the case of the Belarusian NPP at the UN Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention, Lithuania calls on Belarus to immediately agree with the Committee’s proposal to establish a special international commission of experts to examine documents related to the case. Belarus categorically rejected this proposal at the meeting of the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention on 15 March in Geneva.