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Belarus, Lithuania, and a Nuclear Power Plant in Search of a SolutionDebates are still ongoing on the issue of possible construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus. The suggested site is in the Astravets district in the northern part of Hrodna region - or just some fifty kilometres away from neighbouring Lithuania's capital of Vilnius.Lithuania is worried, Belarus' Foreign Affairs Ministry is circling the wagons, and Astravets residents keep collecting signatures for a petition to stop the project. All the while, the Belarusian KGB - still very much alive in this former Soviet republic, which bore the brunt of the nuclear fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - is calling activists in for questioning, and the propaganda machine of the country's nuclear establishment is painting anti-nuclear protesters as members of sex minorities, quite a stigma in a country viewed widely as one of the Eastern European states with the worst human rights record. Initially, several sites were proposed to host the envisioned nuclear power plant (NPP). Last January, reports appeared in Belarus' official media outlets that the choice had finally been made. The NPP is supposed to be built near the village of Mikhalishki in the Astravets district of the Hrodna region. However, as activists with an organisation called The Anti-Nuclear Campaign of Belarus found out, no final decision had actually been settled upon: There was only a recommendation made by a certain unidentified commission, and making a formal decision to place a new nuclear power plant at a particular site is a prerogative afforded only the president of the country. Reports that a decision regarding a particular NPP location had ostensibly been made, combined with mass-scale pro-nuclear propaganda, may have been meant to spin public opinion the right way, as well as to probe the likely reaction on the part of neighbouring Lithuania - a European Union-integrated nation that is phasing out its nuclear power dependence, but may soon find it has a new nuclear power plant in its backyard. If the latter is true, then the idea must have been a raving success - Astravets residents are not exactly psyched about the prospects of living inside of a 30-kilometre NPP safety zone. Belarusians against a nuclear power plant As soon as Astravets became a hot news media item as the likeliest site for a future NPP, local residents realised there was a serious cause for worry. An obsessive NPP publicity campaign in the press pushed them enough to want to take action. In November 2008, a steering committee was put together to organise a public initiative dubbed "Astravets NPP is a Crime." Indeed, locals deem it none other than an atrocity that a nuclear power plant is slated to appear near where they live. KGB and local brass go to war - as they know it The sheer course of action undertaken by the NPP proponents is, in any case, astounding: Instead of arguing the issue at hand, they choose to portray the opposition as gays and transvestites. The very idea that it might help to resort to inciting homophobic sentiments in order to promote a nuclear power plant is plainly despicable. Too bad that its perpetrators will likely remain unknown. The signature collection campaign Just how heart-felt is Astravets residents’ refusal to allow a dangerous site in their backyard is evidenced by the fact that even after various attempts by the local authorities to thwart the anti-nuclear activities, after the KGB summons, and after the appearance of the fake leaflets with insulting innuendoes, the Anti-Nuclear Steering Committee is still holding together. Quite the opposite, instead of giving in to pressure, it keeps attracting new supporters. As arguments against the NPP, the statement lists the threat of an accident or a disaster prompted by an operational failure at the plant, a possible increase in cancer incidence caused by so-called "sanctioned" radiation discharges that a nuclear power plant releases even in the course of routine operation, the risk of another violent earthquake of the scale of the 1909 disaster (the 7.0 magnitude quake of 1909 was the strongest ever recorded in Belarus), and the dominant western winds, which would carry the radioactive fallout all over the country should an accident in fact take place. How viable is the project anyway? Earlier official reports pegged the start of the construction at 2009. The first reactor block of the new NPP is projected to begin operation in 2016, and the next one in 2018. The government has yet to select an equipment supplier or even to announce a tender or any alternative procedure to choose one. The state is likewise hard-pressed to secure enough funds to finance construction works. The costs of building a nuclear power plant of a capacity of around 2 gigawatts may set the country's budget back by as much as 5 to 6 billion EUR, which is no small amount. Of course, there is always the expectation that the new NPP will be another "present" to Belarus from Russia - which may simply build the plant for its neighbor and append the construction costs to the already gigantic debt sheet run up by the Belarusian government. One should hope, however, that at the time of a raging financial and economic crisis, Russia will refrain from making such an expensive and, essentially, perilous gift. Source: www. bellona.org, March 17, 2009. This article appeared in Belarusian Review, Vol. 21, No. 1 --------------------------------------------- Copyright 2009 Belarusian Review All rights reserved. belarusianreview@hotmailcom Andrei Azharouski
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