UPDATE - Lithuanian President Urges EU To Stop Commissioning Of 'Unsafe' Belarusian NPP

VILNIUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2020) Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda has urged the European Union in a letter to stop the commissioning of the "unsafe" Belarusian nuclear power plant, which is being jointly built with Russia's Rosatom.

Lithuania has been protesting the Astravets NPP construction since day one, claiming it to be dangerous. Minsk maintains that the project meets the highest safety standards, dismissing Baltic nations' allegations as politically-motivated.

"It is very clear that more effective EU measures are needed to stop the commissioning of the unsafe Belarus nuclear power plant and to protect the health and well-being of EU citizens. The most urgent task would be to accelerate and resolve the issue of the implementation of the EU stress tests recommendations and use all the opportunities to call on Belarus to stop the power start-up and commercial commissioning of the nuclear power facility," Nauseda said in the letter to presidents Charles Michel of the European Council and Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission.

According to the Baltic nation's leader, the bloc should not tolerate "non-compliance" with safety standards by the Astravets NPP and should "refuse the unsafely generated electricity access to the EU market, as has been done by Lithuania.

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The first Belarusian NPP started generating power on Tuesday. Lithuania has immediately ceased all power trading with its neighbor.

The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, in turn, sent a note of protest to Belarus on Wednesday.

"Belarus is urged to postpone the commissioning of its nuclear facility until the highest standards of nuclear safety and environmental requirements have been met," the ministry said in a press release.

According to the ministry, the NPP has been constructed in violation of the Espoo and Aarhus conventions and Belarus has maintained only "selective cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency."

"Lithuania also reminds that Belarus has so far failed to answer questions regarding a proper seismic safety assessment of the Ostrovets site, its potential impact on the environment and the population of our country, safety culture, resilience to the impact of a heavy aircraft crash, and other issues raised by the responsible Lithuanian authorities," it continued.

The Baltic country vowed to continue raising the issue at the EU and international level.