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Environmental groups urge Medvedev to halt Russia’s involvement in construction of Belarusian nuclear power plant

A number of environmental groups on Friday petitioned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to halt Russia’s involvement in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus, said BelaPAN.

In their appeal, the groups noted that earlier this year the Belarusian and Russian prime ministers had ignored their demand that the nuclear project be revised.

They stressed that the Belarusian government’s determination to pursue the project “has alarmed the public of Belarus, Russia and other countries.”

The appeal cited what it called multiple violations made during public discussions on the plant construction and said that independent experts had criticized the project as flawed.

“The allocation of funds for the Belarusian nuclear power plant out of the Russian budget is not just a waste of the money that would help modernize the energy industry,” Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the Ecozashchita group, told BelaPAN. “This money can lead to new nuclear accidents in Belarus, which has already suffered from the Chernobyl consequences. Moreover, nuclear waste will be transported to Russia, which is already facing a terrible waste situation.”

The expert suggested that the Russian president must not only veto the plans to provide a Russian loan for the project but also order an independent assessment of the project.
“Belarus’ nuclear power plant is already being built in circumvention of many technical requirements, which, as experience shows, inevitably leads to accidents in the future,” environmental expert Yury Varonezhtsaw said.

The appeal was signed by Russia’s Ecozashchita, Bellona and International Social and Environmental Union, as well as Belarus’ Ecodom, Belarusian Party of the Greens, organization called Scientists for a Nuclear-Free Belarus, and other groups.