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Head of the Center for Radiological Safety of Lithuania: On the Day the Radiation Monitoring Was Turned off at the Belnpp, an Emergency Could Have Occurred

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Head of the Center for Radiological Safety of Lithuania: On the Day the Radiation Monitoring Was Turned off at the Belnpp, an Emergency Could Have Occurred

The Belarusian authorities are delaying the provision of information in violation of an international convention.

On March 7, all over Belarus, radiation monitoring stations were temporarily disconnected. This was announced on the LRT TV channel by the head of the Center for Radiological Safety of Lithuania, Julius Žiliukas.

On this day, writes Delfi, “in the Telegram channels of Belarus, information appeared about the failure of the cooling system at the Astravets NPP,” which is located 50 km from Vilnius. The Belarusian authorities deny that there was an incident. The State Atomic Energy Inspectorate of Lithuania (VATESI) was informed by Minsk that the level of radiation in the country was “within normal limits.”

“In the middle of the day on March 7, the stations were disconnected from the network (as it was after the explosion at the test site in Russia - ed.). We cannot say what the problem is, we do not know. But the stations were switched on again later and showed normal background radiation,” Žiliukas said.

He added that "photos of people who themselves measured the level of radiation appeared on social networks, but there was no official data."

According to the official, there were no such cases before when monitoring stations in Belarus were turned off. He clarified that the east wind was blowing on that day and "a surge of radiation in Lithuania was not recorded."

The VATESI press service writes that it has repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus with a request to provide information on a possible release of radiation in the event of a serious nuclear accident. The head of this structure, Michailas Demčenka, said that “Belarus’ delay in providing the requested information can be considered as a failure of the country to fulfill its obligations under the Convention on Nuclear Safety.”

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