The minister stated this after “Rosatom” announced on its website that the incident which occurred on 10 July, when the vessel of the nuclear reactor fell down, had no impact on the equipment. “Rosatom” should seriously take into account the quality of this unit instead of making efforts to save its reputation. The fact that we find out about the incidents from their website or press, as it happened before, and not directly, indicates a tendency to either hide certain events or try to understate them once they become apparent. For this reason, it becomes very difficult to earn confidence. If the actual goal is to convince that the construction works are performed qualitatively, Belarus Government should avoid statements such as building faster and cheaper,” – said Mr Linkevičius to BNS. He reiterated that the only way to ensure safety is for the international experts to monitor the construction of the Astravets NPP. “Technicians, experts can perform better analysis, however, in the use of nuclear energy, every millimetre counts and every deviation might have severe consequences. Therefore whatever happened, without independent monitoring we will hardly be able to understand the process and feel confident about safety,“ – claimed the minister. Mr Linkevičius said that Lithuania has not yet received any information from Belarus neither about this incident nor about the previous incidents.
In relation to the incident at the Astravets NPP on 10 July, in which the vessel of the nuclear reactor was possibly damaged, on 28 July, the Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Belarus to Lithuania Ms Tatarinovich was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania where she was handed a note and requested to immediately provide detailed information related to the possible incident at the Astravets NPP. These diplomatic actions were taken immediately after the Belarusian press published information about the incident on 26 July.
This incident is already the third known incident during the construction of the Astravets NPP in the last four months. The load bearing structures were damaged while bridging the span between two reactors on 8 April 2016. Information on an alleged incident appeared in the press in the beginning of June, however, this information was not confirmed by Belarus institutions.
