Lithuania asks Belarus to provide information on a possible incident at the Astravyez nuclear power plant

“VATESI has approached the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus requesting detailed information on the damage of the reserve cooling system of the first power unit reactor, the condition of this system and the impact of possible damage on the safety of the power unit during its commissioning,” the inspectorate told BNS.

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Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Ministry of Energy has admitted that it has no official information about such an incident, but the Ministry is aware that VATESI has turned to the Ministry of Belarus.

The incident was reported by the portal “Ecohome-ngo.by”, publishing information received from the campaign of opponents of nuclear energy in Belarus, which indicates that it is cooperating with Astravyez NPP on safety issues.

A statement sent by it stated that a serious incident had occurred during the hydraulic testing of the first reactor, in which the emergency cooling system tank was significantly damaged, and that the tank was being repaired to avoid having the accident acknowledged, although it should be replaced for safety reasons. Thus, the reactor is operated without an emergency cooling system – tests are being carried out to increase capacity, which poses a threat of a very serious incident, according to the campaign of Belarusian nuclear opponents, which received information about the incident from several unrelated sources.

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The Belarusian Ministry announced the start of hydraulic testing of the first reactor on September 7, but its completion has not been announced.

The campaign of opponents of nuclear energy in Belarus has approached the Department of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Safety (“Gosatomnadzor”) of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, but it has denied that such an incident has taken place.

As reported, the Astravyez NPP was put into operation on November 3, and on November 7, the power plant was inaugurated by the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, but the production of electricity was stopped a day later. The Ministry of Energy later explained that the resumption of electricity production required the replacement of “certain equipment”, but did not reveal the reasons, while the Belarusian media reported that the turbine of the first power unit had to be shut down due to transformer failure.

On the night of November 19, electricity production in Astravjec was resumed.

VATESI recently appealed to the European Nuclear Safety Regulator to suspend the operation of the Astravjec NPP and to resolve its nuclear safety problems as soon as possible.

Lithuania believes that Belarus has not complied with safety requirements by building a power plant about 30 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and 50 kilometers from Vilnius, but Minsk denies the allegations.

The Lithuanian Radiation Safety Center said on Tuesday that monitoring stations in Lithuania have not detected an increase in radiation levels and that the population currently has no reason to worry and drink iodine tablets.