Belarus to start building its first nuclear power plant in 2008 :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus plans to start building its first nuclear power plant in 2008. Belarus`s National Academy of Sciences said Monday the NPP`s first unit will be commissioned in 2013-2014, and the second unit by 2015. Their total power will be 1,000 megawatts.

Another two units will be built by 2025.

Earlier, a deputy chairman of the academy presidium, Vladimir Timoshpolsky, said Russia and France are the likeliest partners of Belarus in the project.

"Today there`s practically no choice - only Germany, Japan and the U.S. provide services on the nuclear power market besides these states," he said.

In 2007, Belarus is to complete theoretical research and choose a strategic partner for project implementation, and will start talks with the supplier of technology and equipment.

Russia has traditionally been Belarus` closest ally, whose leadership has become increasingly isolated in the West over clampdowns on civil and political freedoms.

Belarus` authoritarian ruler Lukashenko and many other top officials have been banned from entering the United States and the European Union, and the EU has frozen Belarusian government assets.

The ex-Soviet neighbors declared their intention to build a Union State, with a common economic, customs and political space, in 1997. But negotiations have been complicated by a host of issues, including an energy-pricing row at the beginning of 2007, disagreements on a common currency, and tax issues.

During the energy standoff, Moscow briefly shut off supplies via Belarusian pipelines to several EU countries, damaging its image as a reliable energy supplier.

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended Russia`s stance on a gradual transition to market relations with Belarus, saying that it was put in motion now rather than a year ago only because the Russian leadership did not want to "damage the Belarusian president`s popularity" before elections in the country in 2006.

However, Belarus`s Alexander Lukashenko, who won a landslide election last March, has lately assumed a tough stance on Moscow, claiming that bilateral relations have been steadily deteriorating over the past decade.