Minsk plans to build the third power unit at the Belarusian nuclear power plant, said Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Karankevich, reports the State Agency BelTA.
“According to the results of the meeting, it was decided to develop the Astravets nuclear power plant, to implement the second stage – the construction of the third power unit,” he said.
In parallel, according to Karankevich, the Belarusian authorities plan to organise the study of sites in Mogilev region “for the development of nuclear energy.”
They decided to build the third unit of the Belarusian nuclear power plant in addition to the two existing ones. This will require more than 1 thousand additional workers, as Director General of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant Sergei Babovich told Alexander Lukashenko after a meeting in Minsk.
On 9 March 2023, Lithuanian intelligence said Belarus and Rosatom concealed incidents and defects in the reactor systems of the first and second units of the Belarusian nuclear power plant last year. In April 2022, the first unit of the BelNPP was stopped for scheduled repairs, but the defects revealed during the repairs were not reported, the intelligence report noted.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said it sees the risk of technical faults at the plant even after the commissioning of the second unit.
The Ministry of Energy of Belarus rejected the report of the Lithuanian intelligence, calling it a “purposeful action to discredit Bilaes,” and assured that in 2022, the plant had been carried out scheduled maintenance work, which met all the requirements of supervisory authorities and international standards.
Lithuania has repeatedly questioned the choice of the site for the construction of a nuclear power plant near the Belarusian town of Astravets. The country named 10 reasons not to build the Belarusian NPP and accused the Belarusian authorities of hiding information about the plant. Lithuania protested against the construction of BILAES at the highest state level and in international structures.