Hockey player reminded nuclear plant is not a toy (Photo)

On October 9, a banner was hung out at the entrance to Astravets, where the public consultations on construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus took place.

The banner depicted a caricature of Alyaksandr Lukashenka playing table hockey and an inscription “Stop. Nuclear Plant not a Toy”.

Activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” Uladzimir Lemesh and Maksim Serhiets were detained by militia for hanging out the banner. The young people had to spend more than three hours in a militia department allegedly for identity-verification. A questioning report was drawn up against the detainees, and one of the activists was seized a memory card.

A document titled “Report on Environmental Impact Assessment“ is being discussed in Belarus for a month. According to the International Espoo convention, signed and ratified by Belarus, this report must be discussed by public. Officials hope this discussion in Astravets will satisfy international organizations and the neighbouring countries, where the EIA report was sent to. However, experts think the EIA report has errors, contradictions, is lack of real assessment of the environmental impact of the nuclear plant itself and its radioactive waste.