Lithuanian Minister: “Rosatom” Explanations Regarding Fallen Reactor Sound Childish

“When a 300 tons of weight falls from a height of even 10 cm – this is serious,” - Minister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania Kęstutis Trečiokas has said.

Minister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania Kęstutis Trečiokas has called the explanations of the Russian concern “Rosatom”, which is building a Belarusian NPP in Astravets, with regard to the collapse of the reactor pressure vessel, “childish”.

The Minister says that Belarus is constantly trying to conceal information, and, in case of failure, to underestimate it, obzor.lt writes.

First deputy head of the state corporation “Rosatom” Alexander Lokshin has said that the latest incident at the Belarusian NPP cannot be called the “collapse” of the reactor pressure vessel, as the speed of the vessel’s movement had not surpassed the speed of a pedestrian”. He has said this in an interview published at “Rosatom” website.

“These are childish expalnations: when a 300 tons of weight falls from a height of even 10 cm – this is serious,” – Kęstutis Trečiokas has told to BNS on Monday.

The message of “Rosatom” claims that “ceaseless video recording” was being held during the whole process during the incident”, but Trečiokas says that the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment got no materials either from Belarus or “Rosatom” (it has not been clarified whether Vilnius requested such information through the official channels – edit.)

“I would call it their normal way of communication – denial, and when it fails, presenting a major thing (incident – BNS) as an insignificant one, and presenting an insignificant incident as nothing,” - Trečiokas has said.

Last Thursday, the Lithuanian government handed the Belarusian diplomat a note due to the incident at the NPP construction in Astravets.

The Lithuanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Energy and Environment have forwarded a letter to deputy chairman of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, and European Commissioner for Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete, in which they informed about the incident and asked the EU to actively assist in resolving the issue of nuclear safety.