Belarus to Build Nuclear Power Plant

Belarus' president pledged Thursday to begin construction of the country's first nuclear power plant next year, news agencies reported.

Alexander Lukashenko said the plant would help guarantee the ex-Soviet republic's national security.

The project "is dictated not by some political ambitions, but by the necessity to ensure the country's energy security in case of a decrease in gas and oil resources, supply problems or the increase in energy carriers' costs," Lukashenko was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying.

Nuclear Power plant would take four to eight years at an estimated cost of $2.5 billion to $2.8 billion.

Belarus' Soviet-style economy has long been propped up by cheap energy resources from Russia. Moscow this year sharply hiked prices for oil and gas, angering Lukashenko and prompting him to threaten to walk out of the economic union the two nations are moving toward.

This announcement likely to anger some environmentalist Belarusians deeply wary of nuclear power as the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in neighboring Ukraine devastating radioactivity contaminated one-third of the country in the 1986.

"In a country still frightened by the Chernobyl syndrome this (decision) cannot take place without a broad public discussion," said Vasily Nesterenko of the Belard Institute on Nuclear Safety in Minsk.

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