Lithuanian leaders call for action against Belarusian nuclear power plant

Former Lithuanian leaders on Friday appealed to the country's government and international organizations to stop the construction of nuclear power plant in neighboring Belarus.

Valdas Adamkus, Lithuania's former president, and Vytautas Landsbergis, the country's first de facto leader, have signed a public address urging the country's government and international organizations to do everything to immediately stop the project of nuclear power plant in Astravyets, North Western Belarus, near Lithuanian border.

Adamkus and Landsbergis argue the experimental Russian reactor technology is used in the project, which is being controlled by inexperienced and politically dependant authorities.

The construction site is around 50 km away from Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Lithuanian authorities fear the country's capital will be exposed to contamination risks in the case of a nuclear accident.

Lithuania, a small Baltic State, and Belarus belong to BRELL energy ring, which also includes Russia, Latvia and Estonia.

"The electricity produced there will flood our country unrestrained with various economic and political consequences," Adamkus and Landsbergis wrote in their public address noting that Lithuania would finance the nuclear power plant in case electricity is allowed to enter Lithuanian market.

In their words, Lithuania has to inform Belarus and the world that the country won't let in the electricity produced in "unsafe Belarusian nuclear power plant."

"We apply to the Lithuanian government and all the international organizations as well with the requirement to do everything to stop the construction of Belarusian nuclear power plant in Astravyets immediately," Adamkus, Landsbergis and a few other politicians wrote in their address.

Algirdas Butkevicius, Lithuanian prime minister, has recently said the country won't buy electricity from the plant.

Lithuania's energy minister recently called on neighboring countries to boycott electricity from the Belarusian nuclear power plant.

Meanwhile, Linas Linkevicius, the country's foreign minister, reacted to the address, saying the authorities have been taking steps against the project for a few years. He noted that the construction works began seven years ago.

In 2014, Lithuania applied to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee regarding the Belarusian nuclear power plant. The institution decided that environmental assessment of the nuclear plants has to continue, reports Lithuanian National Radio LRT.

The launch of the first unit of the Astravyets nuclear power plant is scheduled in 2018 with the second reactor to be launched in 2019, according to Lithuanian media.

Last year, Belarus said the country's experts would respond to all questions that Lithuania had raised about safety issues of the Astravyets nuclear plant in December, according to BNS news agency.

Lithuania, a EU member country, and Belarus, a member of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, are close neighbors with intense economic and business relations. The businesses are wary in any political tension increase between the two countries. Endit