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Public hearing on Belarus’ nuclear project held in Ukraine

A public hearing on Minsk’s plans to build a nuclear power plant was held in Kyiv on March 31, with members of Ukrainian environmental organizations expressing a negative opinion about the Belarusian authorities’ report on the possible environmental impact of the station.

Belarus’ officials organized the hearing under the UN Convention of Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo).

An official delegation of the country presented its report on the possible environmental impact of the future nuclear power plant.

Taking part in the meeting were also environmentalists who did their own research to assess the impact and established that the station would have very negative effects.

Most Ukrainian environmentalists who were present at the hearing expressed a negative opinion about the report submitted by the official Belarusian delegation.

Stepan Lizun, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of environmental protection, said that the Public Council of All-Ukrainian Organizations under the country’s ministry would draw up conclusions about the project and they would be sent to Minsk through diplomatic channels within a week.

The head of the Public Council of All-Ukrainian Organizations Antonina Yerysheva told BelaPAN that the Council gives a “definite no” to the Belarusian nuclear project, as the authorities’ report on the environmental impact of the plant falls short of Ukrainian regulations and international treaties.

“I think that the hearing was a success,” she said. “We saw the report on the assessment of the environmental impact being discussed professionally in detail and the public rejecting firmly the proposed project.”

Ukraine is likely to send negative comments on the project to Minsk, she said.

A representative of Rivne-based Ecoclub denounced the report. He told BelaPAN that the document fails to assess the impact of waste to be produced by the plant, and specify what will be done with used nuclear fuel or where the plant's waste storage site will be located.

Similar hearings on the Belarusian nuclear project were held in Lithuania and Latvia earlier this month.