Ecological situation around Belarusian nuclear station normal

The ecological situation around the Belarusian nuclear power plant meets requirements of Belarus and the European Union. The information was released by Belarusian First Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Iya Malkina during the online conference hosted by the BelTA website on 26 February.

“If we talk about the area of expertise of the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry, we should mention environmental monitoring in the area around the construction site of the nuclear power plant. The monitoring effort and the data fed by automatic observation stations confirm that the ecological situation around the Belarusian nuclear power plant meets environmental quality requirements set by Belarusian laws and meets norms of the European Union,” stressed Iya Malkina.

In her words, in September 2014 Belarus was advised to invite an IAEA mission to evaluate the measures taken with regard to the nuclear power plant construction. “Respectively, in September 2014 Belarus sent an application to invite an IAEA mission. In February 2015 we received a number of follow-up questions. Once we are ready to answer them – and we are working on that — the IAEA will decide on and coordinate the time of the visit with us,” noted the First Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister.

“I think that in the near future we will answer the procedural questions that the IAEA is interested in and the mission will happen,” said the official.