Drills held as Belarus nuclear power plant readies to get first fuel

Record ID: 1436226

  • Title: Drills held as Belarus nuclear power plant readies to get first fuel
  • Date: 11th October 2019
  • Summary: NEAR ASTRAVETS, BELARUS (OCTOBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY WORKERS IN PROTECTIVE GEAR SPRAYING WATER AND FOAM ON BUILDINGS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT UNDER CONSTRUCTION BUILDING REFLECTING IN WATER VARIOUS OF MEN IN PROTECTIVE GEAR CARRYING RIFLES ENTERING BUILDING VARIOUS OF FIREFIGHTERS AT WORK VARIOUS OF GROUP OF PEOPLE WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR MARCHING IN FIELD VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN PROTECTIVE GEAR OUTSIDE TENT VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY SPECIALISTS IN TENT AT WORK (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) MINISTER OF EMERGENCIES OF BELARUS, VLADIMIR VASHCHENKO, SAYING: "The drills have shown that all the services are ready for emergency situations and are ready to take all the measures to eliminate an emergency. Everyone is fully equipped and ready for action." VARIOUS OF MEN IN PROTECTIVE GEAR VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY WORKERS REMOVING PROTECTIVE GEAR FROM MAN BAGS WITH PRINT READING (Russian) "CONTAMINATED" VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY WORKERS SPRAYING WATER ON VEHICLE AS IT DRIVES THROUGH MINISTER OF ENERGY OF BELARUS VIKTOR KARANBEVICH TALKING TO MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) MINISTER OF ENERGY OF BELARUS, VIKTOR KARANBEVICH, SAYING: "We plan that the fuel will be delivered this year, all the preparations go as planned. All the technical standards are maintained to full extent." VARIOUS OF FUTURE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT VIEWS
  • Embargoed: 25th October 2019 16:08
  • Keywords: Nuclear power power plant emergency emergency drills contamination nuclear Belarus
  • Location: NEAR ASTRAVETS, BELARUS
  • City: NEAR ASTRAVETS, BELARUS
  • Country: Belarus
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA001B0NL5X5
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Belarus emergency services held drills on Friday (October 11) at the country's very first nuclear power plant as it gets ready to launch.
    Belarus is building a nuclear power plant near the town of Astravets, which is near the border with Lithuania. Power plant is being built by Russia's Atomstroyexport and financed with a $10 billion loan from by Moscow.
    It expects to have the first of its reactors online this year and the next one in 2020.
    The nearly-completed nuclear plant has long been viewed as a threat to its safety and national security by Lithuania, which says it is not built to the highest safety standards, an allegation which is denied by Belarus.
    In April 1986, a botched test at reactor number 4 at the Soviet nuclear power plant in Chernobyl sent clouds of nuclear material billowing across Europe and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
    Eastern regions of Belarus were most affected by the contamination.
    Thirty-one plant workers and firemen died in the immediate aftermath of the accident, mostly from acute radiation sickness.
    Thousands more later succumbed to radiation-related illnesses such as cancer, although the total death toll and long-term health effects remain a subject of intense debate.
    (Production: Vladimir Kostin, Dmitry Turlyun)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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