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Expert denies that Belarus will be taken "hostage" by nuclear power plant

Physicist Alyaksandr Mikhalevich has denied that Belarus will be taken "hostage" by its nuclear power plant.

Dr. Mikhalevich, who heads the research section of the Energy Efficiency Center at the Lykov Heat and Mass Exchange Institute of the national academy of sciences, is among the authors of the nuclear power plant construction project.

He acknowledged that some experts were concerned that efforts to widen the use of other energy sources would be abandoned amid the construction of the plant.

He said that it was not true, noting that the government's energy efficiency concept envisaged, for instance, the construction of coal-fired power plants, new hydraulic power plants and plants capable of burning biomass fuel by 2015.

"Our major goal is to leave behind the dominance of gas in electricity and heat production," he said, noting that the share of natural gas in the production of energy was projected to drop from the current 80 percent to 50 percent in 2020.

He said that in an "optimum" scenario of energy consumption, natural gas should account for 60 percent, nuclear power for 25 percent, renewable energy for seven percent and coal for eight percent. // BelaPAN