Terms under which the information supplied by the electronic version of the "Vecherny Minsk" can be reprinted.

---

News flies quickly - soon in Belarus will be a NPP. M.M. Gerasimov, the Minister of energy and fuel, did not disproved the rumours at the press conference held at the end of December 1996. He stated that Belarus has to provide itself with energy and building of a NPP is the only way out.

One can easily imagine a negative reaction of the public - Chernobyl is a sorrowful example. Anyway we should tell about the stage of the project.

Our "VM" correspondent interviews the head of the Perspective Development Department L.P. Batian.

" Mrs. Batian, taking into cosideration the Chernobyl disaster, can our republic do without a nuclear station? "

" For a republic with a shortage of fossil fuels it is rather problematic. The prices for organic fuel are constantly rising up whereas nuclear stuff has stable ones and it will remain so in the future. NPP is a source of the cheepest energy. "

" So, we have to take up NPP? "

" I think so. We have to be realistic. Energy resources are insufficient in the republic. They provide only 15% of the demand. "

" What do you think of the alternative sources of power such as wind power? "

" Yes, we consider this source of power as well as hydro power stations and other alternative sources as the major directions for the national energy policy. We must use our domestic energy carriers in order not to depend on import. "

" But are they enough to fully supply us? "

" No, they are not. Alternative and renewable sources comprise only 5% of the national demand. While the industry is growing up the demand will climb up too. It is going to be a problem.

It means that we have to consider all the variants and the nuclear power is among them. Surely we shall study the problem having the Chernobyl disaster in mind and take every precaution to secure the nuclear station no matter how expensive it will be. "

" I wonder, how is the project going on ? "

" Now we are looking for a site that meets all requirements."

" And what are the requirements? "

" There is plenty of them...It is a great deal of work. It includes land survey, geological, seismotectonic, hydrologic, geophysic and meterologic studies.

Our scientific acadimies are working on it together with project and special institutes, geodesists, geophysicians, hydrologists, meteorologists etc. "

" If I am not mistaken, during the press conference they mentioned twelve sites. "

" First, we considered 54 sites in every region of the republic. Then we selected 6 that met our requirements and started studying them. But because of financial problems now we are working only on 3 of them. "

" What are they? "

" We are studying the territories of the Shklovsky district, Byhovsky district (Mogiliov region) and Dubrovensky district (Vitebsk region). The reports will be submitted to the Government to take a dicision. Being provided with the necessary fundings we will finish up the preparatory work on these sites. "

" Are you working on the optimal reactor for the future NPP? "

" Yes, we have several variants of the reactor but our priorities are low costs and safety. We have not made a choice so far. We assume that it will be a reactor with an output capacity of 2.5 million kW. "

" It means that it will be different from the Chernobyl reactor? "

" Absolutely different. "

" Is it going to be underneath? "

" I can not say for sure. This will be discussed at the stage of economic and tecnical projecting. "

At the end, let`s not stir up tensions. So far the decision about the nuclear station is not taken. It is spoken of only as an alternative source of power for the future Belarus. No one makes a secret of it.

Click Here to Return Back

Webmasters, contact Belarus.net support
Click Here to visit Belarus.net