HR Defender: Authorities Conceal Information On Belarusian NPP

Why is there no access for the public and experts to the construction site of the Astravets nuclear power plant?

Experts and public activists once again raise the issue of openness and transparency for the society of the NPP construction process to the responsible persons, according to the "Viasna" HRC.

"In the first days of April we applied to the management of the nuclear power plant to hold a round table with them on transparency and openness of the construction of the nuclear power plant. But the management did not cooperate. We had no choice but to simply gather local activists living in the construction region, invite experts who have at least some information, and talk about our next steps, " - human rights activist from Maladechna Ales Kaputski says.

Activist from Astravets Mikalai Ulasevich notes that public activists and interested people are focusing their efforts on stopping construction, which will not bring anything good to Belarus.

"And now the danger is greater than ever. This is evidenced by the cases that occurred in 2016, when one reactor was dropped to the ground, and the second was hit against a power post, " - he said.

Ales Kaputski underlines:

"Everything is closed, no one knows anything, the information is hidden. The question is: "Why?" Why is there no access for the independent public and experts to the construction site? "So there certainly is something to hide."

Member of the Council of the public association "Ecodom", executive secretary of the public ecological expertise of the project of the Belarusian NPP Tatiana Novikova says:

"The problem is that Belarus violated the Aarhus Convention, the Espoo convention in the process of construction, because it did not take into account the opinion of the public when deciding to build a Belarusian nuclear power plant, nor the opinion of the neighboring countries."

The roundtable discussion on the problems of the construction of the nuclear power plant was held on June 5.