Latvian reporters pleased with Belarus’ openness about nuclear power plant project

Belarus openly answers questions about the construction of the nuclear power plant, BelTA learned from representatives of Latvian mass media, who are in Belarus on a media trip.

A number of reporters of Latvian mass media visited the Belarusian nuclear power plant construction site in Ostrovets District, Grodno Oblast the day before. Arnis Kluinis, a reporter of the Neatkariga newspaper, noted that it is difficult to implement such projects in Latvia due to the small size of the country. “This is why the Belarusian nuclear power plant is of great interest for reporters from neighboring countries,” he noted. “During the tour of the nuclear power plant we managed to learn everything we wanted to know. There is no evasion or understatement at all. Why would anyone even do it? The country is open to a dialogue about the matter.”

According to Arnis Kluinis, the fact that the Belarusian nuclear power plant as a new source of energy will be built within comparatively a short distance from the Belarusian-Latvian border is important for Latvia. It will become one of the factors of constructive changes, which are bound to happen in the power engineering industry of the region.

Kristina Khudenko, a reporter of the Delfi.lv website, shared the view of her colleague. “I received answers to all the questions I asked during the tour of the Belarusian nuclear power plant. You have to understand what kind of a facility it is. There are certain security considerations to remember. Naturally, reporters cannot inspect a nuclear power plant as closely as IAEA experts. However, I know that representatives of this international organization have been to the construction site and the Belarusian side gave them exhaustive information,” she said.

Andrei Tatarchuk, a reporter of a number of Latvian business newspapers (the Segodnya and Biznes Segodnya newspapers and the Telegraf magazine), noted that even before the media trip began, its participants were particularly interested in visiting the Belarusian nuclear power plant. “We saw a massive successful business project and were given information about it,” said Andrei Tatarchuk. “Apart from that, it was interesting to see the automobile factory BelAZ in Zhodino, which has been preserved and continues developing. The haul trucks the company makes are competitive on foreign markets. Their size is unique. It was interesting to learn about peculiarities of this business and the technical side of things.”

The Latvian reporters are in Belarus on a three-day media trip. Apart from the Belarusian nuclear power plant and BelAZ they have visited the Minsk office of the international video games development company Wargaming. On 27 October they are expected to visit the Mir Castle complex in Korelichi District and the national historical and cultural museum-reserve Nesvizh.