Belarus nuclear power plant stirs fears in Lithuania
OSTROVETS, BELARUS — Thirty years after the Chernobyl disaster spewed radioactive clouds into the sky and sent shockwaves across Europe, Belarus is building a nuclear reactor on the doorstep of the EU despite fears in neighboring Lithuania.
Construction of the facility, located in the northwestern Belarusian town of Ostrovets only around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Lithuanian border, is entering its final stages.
Its two reactors, each with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, will be operational from 2019 and 2020 respectively.
The project, approved by strongman Alexander Lukashenko's government in 2008 and spearheaded by the Russian state energy corporation Rosatom, is being nearly completely financed by Moscow with a $10-billion loan.
The construction of the reactor initially revived bad memories in a country that had a quarter of its territory covered with radiation from the 1986 explosion at the Soviet-era plant in Chernobyl, in present-day Ukraine.
"When we heard that a plant was being built literally outside our windows, we were scared," said Nina Rybik, a writer who was one of tens of thousands evacuated from contaminated zones 30 years ago.
"But then the fear passed: We were told that advanced technology is being employed to build the station and that every single thing is being controlled," she told AFP.
She said that even those who had gathered signatures against the construction of the plant were now trying to find work there.
As worries about nuclear safety had been magnified by the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, the local authorities and the Russian contractor actively worked to reassure the nearby population.
To showcase their commitment to safety, Belarusian authorities demanded in 2016 that Rosatom replace equipment damaged during a fall, even though the Russian corporation insisted that the 330ton shell had merely touched the ground after sliding down from a four-meter height.