Belarusian authorities write letters to nuclear companies

Alyaksandr Lukashenka obliged the Belarusian government to write letters to world nuclear companies with a suggestion to construct a nuclear power plant in Belarus.

At a session on nuclear plant on 30 June Alyaksandr Lukashenka stressed is was necessary to suggest officially French-German, US-Japanese and Russian companies to construct a nuclear plant. “From now on any company has a month to proffer its services on a nuclear plant construction. Send letters to them and we will publish their answers in newspapers. We do this to avoid speculations, to avoid reproaches this decision was taken behind the scenes,” the Belarusian head of state said.

When choosing partners, the Belarusian side bases on an assumption that water-water energetic reactors and boiling water reactors are most popular in the world. 78 per cent of reactors in the process of construction belong to the third generation of water-water energetic reactors. There are only three companies in the world - French-German, US-Japanese and Russian ones that produce reactors of this type.

The head of Belarusian state noted that he wasn’t satisfied with the level of public awareness among the inhabitants of the districts, where a nuclear power plant will probably be constructed. According to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, it is necessary to work with people and explain them what nuclear energy is, in particular, on the examples of other countries. He set Russia as an example, the state that has enough energy resources, but is going to construct more than 20 nuclear power blocks, and Europe, where some dozens of energy blocks will be constructed.

The head of state thinks putting-off of terms of end of preparatory works on NPP construction from 2008 to 2009 is unacceptable.

He reminded that a political decision on construction of the nuclear plant in Belarus was taken on 15 January 2008. Exact dates of setting into operation of the first energy block in 2016 and the second one in 2018 have been determined. Alyaksandr Lukashenka expressed his dissatisfaction at absence of clearance and certainty of choosing a construction site.

Issues on choosing a construction site and an executor of nuclear plant construction were discussed in details at the session. The projects, terms of execution of the projects, expenses for construction of a plant and necessary infrastructure as well as safety level of the object were estimated.

Lukashenka heard the report on the results of exploration works on potential sites for nuclear plant construction. The three sites have no banning factors. However, there are some restrictive factors which will be finally analysed after additional research.

Based on the introduced on the session materials, Lukashenka ordered the government to conduct additional exploring work of the three sites for probable location of the nuclear power plant within three or four months. So, a final decision on choosing a site for a plant construction in Belarus will be made by the end of 2008. According to IAEA standards, two variants will be determined a main one and an alternative one.