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Group in Horki, Mahilyow region, said to have collected more than 2,500 signatures against nuclear power plant project

 

A civil society group in the Horki district, Mahilyow region, has collected more than 2,500 signatures to a petition against the planned construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus, journalist Eduard Brokaraw, spokesman for the group, told BelaPAN.

The petition will soon be sent to the Presidential Administration and the National Assembly, Mr. Brokaraw said.

“We don’t want to be sitting on a powder keg, waiting for another disaster to break out,” the group says in the petition. “We call on the president, the government and the parliament to repeal the decision and to re-direct the allocated funds toward developing safe power supply technologies.”

The campaign will not stop until the decision to build the plant is reversed, Mr. Brokaraw said.

While collecting signatures, campaigners inform local residents about the possible consequences of the construction of a nuclear power plant for them and the environment, he noted.

According to Mr. Brokaraw, his group will soon launch a similar campaign in Mstsislaw, Mahilyow region.

Government experts currently consider two sites for the construction of the plant, with one of them located near Bykhaw, Mahilyow region, and the other between Horki and Shklow also in the Mahilyow region, which was affected worst in Belarus by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster along with the Homyel region.

The construction of the $4-billion power plant was expected to begin this year and to be completed in 2018. The 2,000-MW plant is supposed to supply some 15 percent of the country’s electricity needs.