Belarus May Begin Building Nuclear Power Plant in 2008

MINSK. Jan 23 (Interfax) – Construction of a nuclear power plant is expected to begin in Belarus in 2008, a source in the country’s government told Interfax.

“It is planned to begin building a nuclear power plant in 2008. The project’s deadline is 2012,” he said.

A site has yet to be selected for the facility, the source said. “Three options are being considered. Scientists and energy sector officials are due to make a decision in the near future,” he said.

There are certain “moral problems in Belarus. I mean the population’s readiness to agree to a nuclear power plant’s construction following the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl facility,” he said.

“But we need to understand that we cannot avoid taking this step, especially as modern nuclear power plants have much more reliable safeguards,” the source said.

The ‘Nuclear Technologies for the Economy’ state program gives the Belarussian energy sector until 2010 to create conditions for connecting a nuclear power plant to the country’s power grid. The measure will allow Belarus to save up to four billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, cut the price of electricity by at least 20% and reduce the country’s spending on energy resources by 200- 300 million dollars a year.