Nuclear power in Europe

Astravets regional executive committee denied public activists Mikalay Ulasevich and Ivan Kruk a right to hold informational pickets at the territory of Astravets district Hrodna region.

They applied to hold 5 informational pickets 9n November (two in Astravets, others in Mikhalishki, Varanyany and Hervyaty) against construction of a nuclear power station in the region, the human rights centre “Viasna” informs. (more…)

Minsk, Nov 06, 2008 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) — Seven residents of Hrodna Region’s Astravets District have announced their intention to campaign against the government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant in the area in western Belarus.

The group is led by Mikalay Ulasevich, a sole entrepreneur and member of the [opposition] United Civic Party. (more…)

The Belarusian government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant are fraught with “multiple troubles and ordeals for the people,” Belarusian expert Heorhiy Lepin said at an international conference in Vilnius on October 9.

He described nuclear energy programs as “the most costly and the most hazardous of all power generation technologies.” “This danger is connected not only with the possibility of accidents: a nuclear reactor pollutes the environment during its routine operation,” Dr. Lepin said. (more…)

“No more Chernobyl disasters,” Kristen Touborg MP writes in Jyllands-Posten. A member of Denmark’s Socialist People’s Party, Touborg is also deputy chair of the Nordic Council Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The committee visited Chernobyl and the surrounding areas of Ukraine and Belarus during the summer and the impression made by field trip has not diminished her opposition to nuclear power. (more…)

VIENNA, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will provide $17 million to help improve safety at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster, and fully decommission it, a top Russian nuclear official said on Monday.

Three reactors of the Chernobyl plant continued to operate for several years after reactor number four exploded in 1986, the last reactor shutting down in 2000. The reactors still contain nuclear fuel rods, and require constant monitoring. The fourth reactor is housed in a Soviet-era sarcophagus set to be replaced by a $1.4 bln metal structure. (more…)

Russia and Belarus will both have nuclear power plants close to Lithuania by the time Ignalina nuclear power plant has a replacement, The Baltic Times quotes the president of the Lithuanian Industrialists’ Confederation and the majority owner of Achema Group, Bronislavas Lubys.

Lubys said that he is certain that before Lithuania builds its planned new nuclear power plant, Russia and Belarus will construct two new atomic power stations in the region. (more…)

Some 170 billion rubels to go toward 2009 preparations for nuclear power plant construction, deputy minister says.

Around 170 billion rubels in public funds is projected to be spent on 2009 preparations for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus, Deputy Finance Minister Uladzimir Amaryn said at a meeting with members of the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Under the ministry’s 2009 budget estimates, some 700 billion rubels is to be earmarked for support of the real economic sector, 1.5 times more than this year, with 262 billion rubels to account for direct subsidies.
Some 2,000 billion rubels in loans and subsidies from the state budget is to go toward housing construction projected at six million square meters. In addition, 314 billion rubels from the state and local budgets is projected to be spent on the laying of supply pipelines at new developments. (more…)

On September 5, the Emergencies Ministries of Belarus and Russia will consider an opportunity to conduct joint exercises at the Smolensk Nuclear Power Station, BelTA learnt from Press Secretary of the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus Vitaly Novitsky. (more…)

(DRUSKININKAI) - Belarus plans to build a new nuclear power plant by 2015 that could possibly export energy to neighbour Lithuanuia, Belarus Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said Tuesday in Lithuania.

“We are going to build the first block by 2015. We spoke with Lithuanian energy specialists about the possibility of supplying part of the electricity produced in this power plant to Lithuania,” said Sidorsky after talks with Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas in Lithuania’s resort town of Druskininkai, near the Belarus border. (more…)

Belarus may launch the construction of a nuclear power plant in January 2009, First Vice-Premier Vladimir Semashko told a joint session of the Energy Ministry of Belarus.

“The construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant may be launched on January 1, 2009 or may be earlier,” he said. The cost of the construction may reach $5-6 billion. In 2009, the Government intends to allocate Br200 billion from the national budget to finance the construction works. (more…)