These diplomatic actions were taken right after the State Security Department of Lithuania announced its suspicion that an incident had occurred in the previous week at the Astravets NPP. If the information is confirmed, it will be already the second known incident at the Astravets NPP. The structural frame of the NPP collapsed in April.
The Belarusian diplomat was handed a note, requesting to provide detailed information about the incident. Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry expresses its concern over the lack of transparency, safety culture and security when constructing the Astravets NPP, as well as the non-compliance with the international standards of nuclear safety and environmental protection. Belarus is once again urged to invite experts of the European Union to evaluate the choice of the construction site of the Astravets NPP, and the process and quality of its construction.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania requested Belarus once again as a matter of urgency to accomplish the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Site and External Events Design peer review mission in its full scope; to perform the comprehensive risk and safety assessments (stress tests) for the Astravets NPP as it was agreed with the European Commission on 23 June 2011; and to establish an international experts’ commission as proposed by the Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention for an in-depth analysis of the implementation of the Astravets NPP project.
Lithuania’s Foreign Ministry has continuously expressed its concerns over security and safety of the Astravets NPP and raised these questions in the European Union, IAEA, the United Nations and other organisations.
On 5 May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania summoned the Ambassador of Belarus to Lithuania Aleksandr Korol. The diplomat was handed a diplomatic note and requested to promptly submit comprehensive information about the accident at the Astravets NPP. These diplomatic steps were taken immediately after the Belarusian media reported the incident. In the beginning, the Belarusian authorities denied the information, but later acknowledged that the incident had occurred on 8 April 2016. The load bearing structures were damaged when casting the lap of the hull that was under construction between the two reactors.
