Lithuanian president calls for steps to address threat from Belarus’ nuclear plant

June 20, BPN. Lithuanian authorities should come up with a plan to eliminate the threats from the Belarusian nuclear power plant, President Gitanas Nausėda has told the parliament in his state-of-the-nation address.

“Despite serious incidents at the plant, covered up last year and subsequently exposed by Lithuanian intelligence, the Belarus regime is proceeding with the launch of its second unit,” Nausėda’s press office quoted him as saying.

“I have personally succeeded in having the Astraviec nuclear power plant identified as a problem affecting the entire European Union,” Nausėda said. “We can no longer afford to wait.”

The current Lithuanian government promised to stop the operation of the Belarusian NPP and will not give up these attempts as they are essential for national security, he stressed.

Russia’s Rosatom in charge of the NPP construction “deserves international sanctions,” he added.

In March, Lithuanian intelligence said that Rosatom withheld information on defects in reactor systems and incidents that occurred at the Belarusian NPP in 2022. Belarusian energy ministry dismissed the report as a discrediting information campaign.

Located near Astraviec, Hrodna region, some 10 miles off the Lithuanian border, the Belarusian NPP has been designed by Russia’s Rosatom and built with a Russian loan. Lithuania views the plant as unsafe and describes it as a “geopolitical weapon.”

Unit 1 started pilot operation in November 2020, and commercial operation, in June 2021. Unit 2 is scheduled to begin commercial operation in October.