The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry issued a note to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday requesting official information on the incident on Sunday that led to the shutdown of the recently commissioned Astravyec nuclear power plant (NPP), including the impact of the incident on nuclear safety, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.
“It is important for both Lithuania and the international community as a whole to use official and factual information about the situation at the Belarusian NPP,” the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said.
“Therefore, Belarus is requested to respond immediately and explain how the incident occurred, what its causes are and what its impact will be on the operation of the nuclear facility and the provision of nuclear safety,” the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It adds that Lithuania has repeatedly called in the note not to start operating the Astravjec NPP until it has the highest standards of nuclear safety.
It has already been reported that the Astravjec NPP temporarily suspended electricity production on Sunday due to technical problems.
The Belarusian Ministry of Energy said Monday night that it would be necessary to replace “certain equipment” to resume electricity production, but the reasons were not revealed.
The NPP press service could not name the time when it was planned to resume electricity production.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian media reported that the turbine of the first power unit of the NPP had to be stopped on Sunday due to the failure of transformers in one of the units.
It is emphasized that the incident did not pose a threat of radioactivity leakage.
Belarus reportedly commissioned the newly built Astravyez NPP on 3 November.
The NPP builder is the Russian company Rosatom, and Moscow has provided a $ 10 billion loan to finance the construction.
Lithuania is particularly active against the construction of the Astravjec NPP, which considers that the safety requirements have not been met during the construction of the NPP. The new NPP is located 30 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and 50 kilometers from Vilnius.
Belarus rejects Lithuania’s accusations.
Vilnius responded to the start-up of the Astravyez NPP by suspending commercial electricity exchanges between Belarus and Lithuania.
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