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Lithuanian environmental campaigners gathering signatures for petition against Belarusian nuclear project

Environmental campaigners in Lithuania are collecting signatures for a petition against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Belarus, BelaPAN said.

More than 3,000 people have put their signatures to the online petition posted on the Internet less than a fortnight ago.

The appeal to be submitted to the Lithuanian environmental protection ministry reads that the Belarusian authorities plan to build the station in the Astravets district in the Hrodna region, some 23 kilometers of the Lithuanian border and 40 kilometers of Vilnius.

The plant will affect the hydrological conditions of the River Viliya, which rises in Belarus and flows into Lithuania, the petition says.

In the event of an accident, Vilnius will have to be evacuated as well, it says.

The petition highlights concern about the safety of the future plant that is projected to use Russia’s experimental nuclear reactor never operated before.

Last year the Belarusian authorities sent a report on the potential environmental impact of the future plant to neighboring states – Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine.

Belarus is required to discuss the environmental effects of the nuclear project with its neighbors under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)’s 1991 Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context.

On March 2, the Belarusian energy ministry held a public hearing on the project in Vilnius. The Belarusian delegation claimed at the hearing that the plant would have no significant impact on the local environment.

Lithuania may send its comment on the project to Minsk, but it has no powers to force the neighboring country to scrap it.

Local campaigners want the Lithuanian authorities to voice their protest against the construction of the plant. The Lithuanian environmental protection ministry is to decide about the country’s stance on the matter until March 31.

At the same time, Lithuania is preparing to build its own nuclear power plant near Visaginas close to the Belarusian border, at the site of the closed Ignalina nuclear power plant that was shut down on December 31, 2009.