The consultations on the report on the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Belarusian nuclear power plant scheduled for late May, might be deferred to June, BelTA learnt from Anna Klyut, chief specialist of the state environmental audit department of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

The date of the consultations has not been finalized yet. “We suggested discussing the EIA report by the end of May, but Lithuania said that it will not be ready until June; Ukraine did not confirm its readiness to take part in the consultations in May, either. So far these issues remain open; the consultations are likely to be postponed,” Anna Klyut said.

She reminded that on 25 May the consultations on Belarus’ NPP EIA report were held in Warsaw. Taking part in the consultations were specialists of the Energy Ministry, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Emergencies Ministry, Healthcare Ministry and National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Poland was represented by the experts of the National Atomic Energy Agency, General Directorate for Environmental Protection and its offices in Lublin and Bialystok and the administration of the Lublin and Bialystok voivodships.

Anna Klyut informed that as early as in 2009 Belarus submitted a preliminary NPP EIA report to Warsaw. The Polish side made some suggestions to which Belarus responded. “However, some issues remained unresolved; they were discussed in Warsaw yesterday; we hope that all the issues will be settled,” she added.

The environmental impact assessment of the Belarusian nuclear power plant will be fine-tuned taking into consideration the remarks and suggestions of the neighboring countries and forwarded for the state environmental expertise.


An EIA report contains the environmental, social and economic description of a nuclear power plant site, a report on its compliance with natural and ecological criteria, the characteristics of the nuclear power plant, preliminary analysis of its impact on the environment and other data. The assessment has been performed in compliance with the legislation of Belarus and the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context and also in line with the IAEA recommendations. The EIA report is based on the results of the research into the state of the environment conducted in 2009, design and survey works which were done as the site was selected. The assessment describes the aggregate impact of the NPP facilities on the environment, on the social and economic conditions and health of people.

Belarus has plans to construct a nuclear power plant of the 2,400MW capacity. The first power unit will be put into operation in 2016, the second – in 2018. The plant will be built upon the project of Saint Petersburg Atomenergoprojekt Institute. General contractor will be Atomstroyexport, a state-owned engineering company regulated by the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom). The new nuclear power plant is expected to be constructed in the Ostrovets region of the Grodno oblast of Belarus.

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