Lithuania Presented Note To Ambassador Of Belarus

The Lithuanian government demands to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident at the Belarusian NPP.

On Thursday the Lithuanian government handed a note to the Belarusian diplomat in connection with the incident at the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction in Astravets and appealed to Brussels with a request to the European Union (EU) for assistance, ru.delfi.lt reports.

Charge d'Affaires of Belarus in Lithuania Liudmila Tatarynovich has been summoned to the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.

“The Belarusian diplomat was handed a note with the request to conduct a thorough investigation into this incident as soon as possible and to submit the results of the investigation to Lithuania and other neighboring countries, and the International Atomic Energy Agency,” – the Foreign Ministry informed.

These actions were taken two days after the Department of Energy of the Republic of Belarus recognized that this month, while moving the reactor vessel at the construction of the Belarusian NPP, an “emergency” had taken place.

Belarusian officials have been refusing to comment on further media reports that the unit weighing more than 300 tons fell down from a height of several meters.

Lithuania suggests Belarus to form an international team of experts, which would analyze the results of the investigation and make recommendations.

Belarus is also urged to invite independent international experts to assess the validity of the BNPP construction site and the construction quality.

Lithuanian Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Energy and the Environment has sent a letter to the deputy chairman of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič, and European Commissioner for Energy Miguel Arias Cañete, where they inform about the incident and ask the EU to assist actively in addressing the issue of nuclear security, the ministry’s report says.

This is not the first report on the possible incidents at the under construction Astravets NPP. The Energy Ministry of Belarus has confirmed one more incident – its “support structures were damaged” in April.

Minsk says that it was a “minor defect.” Lithuania criticizes Belarus for not meeting safety standards at the construction of BNPP.