Stanislau Shushkevich: “This is demonstration of gross ignorance”

The first head of independent Belarus comments on Lukashenka’s statement on possession of “virtually weapons-grade uranium”.

Stanislau Shushkevich is the former chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus, a nuclear physicist, a corresponding member of National Academy of Science. Under his rule, soviet nuclear weapons were removed from Belarus in the early 1990s.

“Lukashenka’s words about uranium are a demonstration of his gross ignorance in these issues. He confuses the definitions – radioactive, highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium. These are different notions. I can certainly say – we do not have and will not have significant amounts of weapons-grade uranium. We have the so called dirty uranium, it is heavy radioactive. We have a closed active zone of the research reactor in Sosny near Minsk. As the reactor is closed down, radioactive materials are kept under special conditions in order not to allow a nuclear reaction. This uranium can’t be used for making a nuclear bomb. A special industry branch is needed to enrich this uranium. We do not have these expensive technologies,” the former chairman of the Supreme Council of Belarus told in an interview to charter97.org.

According to Shushkevich, a reason for Lukashenka’s statement was the fact he took offence at not having been invited to the Washington nuclear security summit.

“Lukashenka remembered that Belarus was one of the USSR nuclear stores and that makes him feel sad. He thought he would be invited everywhere. But he wasn’t invited. He doesn’t suit the company,” the politician said.

We remind that yesterday during the visit to Homel region Alyaksandr Lukashenka stated that Belarus has highly enriched uranium.

“Honestrly: Belarus has kept highly enriched uranium, hundreds of kilograms of virtually weapon-grade uranium and lower grade uranium,” the Belarusian dictator stated. As said by him, “With a knife to my throat they demand to give the uranium away. And as I do not agree, they haven't invited me to the summit. This fact shows that neither the US nor the West in general can be trusted," the ruler said.

The summit on nuclear security issues was held in Washington on April 12–13. Leaders of the rogue states and states which threaten international security, like Iran, North Korea and Belarus, were not invited to the summit.