Atomic Plant at EU’s Border Spooks Leaders Amid Risk Warning

(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is set to call for a ban of electricity imports from Belarus, after Lithuania warned the bloc’s leaders of growing risks from a newly built nuclear-power plant plagued with safety mishaps.

Lithuania has long complained to Europe about potential threats at the Russian-built Astravets facility after a string of accidents during construction and attempts to conceal them. The plant’s opening comes 34 years after the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl meltdown in neighboring Ukraine made a wide swath of land uninhabitable, killed dozens of people outright and left thousands more with lingering, often fatal, health problems.

Last month, Belarus spooked the Baltic nation again after an electrical fault at the plant halted production just a day after it opened, prompting Lithuanians to rush to pharmacies for state-provided iodide pills. Less than a month later, cooling system and steam absorber malfunctions led to unplanned shutdowns. The Baltic nation ended all Belarussian power imports in November when the plant started production and wants a regional boycott of electricity from unsafe facilities.

“Quantity and frequency of the safety incidents indicate poor quality assurance and control in the earlier design, manufacturing and assembling stages as well as low operational safety,” Lithuania said in a briefing note to EU governments ahead of the summit. “There is no proper preparation of safety and incident management systems in place, absent competence and shortage of personnel.”

As a result, 27 EU leaders meeting at a summit that starts Thursday in Brussels will emphasize the importance of safety at Astravets and ask ”the Commission to investigate possible measures preventing commercial electricity imports from third countries’ nuclear facilities that do not fulfill EU recognized safety levels,” according to draft conclusions seen by Bloomberg.

Construction Problems

Lithuania itself shut its Soviet-made Ignalina nuclear power plant more than a decade ago as part of its agreement to join the EU in 2004. The country relies on power imports for about 70% of its consumption needs, with Belarus supplies accounting 5% before the cut off.

The Baltic country considers Astravets dangerous because of its location just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital of Vilnius as it was built on land with heightened seismic risks. In the event of an accident, winds could send over a radioactive cloud in two hours. The country is also worried about transparency, with some incidents initially going undisclosed, including when the 330-ton casing for the plant’s atomic core slipped from a crane and plunged to the ground. Only 4 of 29 stress test recommendations by the EU have been implemented so far.

The 2,400-megawatt facility’s two reactors are being built by the export arm of Russia’s state-run Rosatom Corp. Russia is providing the lion’s share of Astravets’s $11 billion cost. Compromising safety procedures, Belarus sped up the launch of the nuclear plant in the run-up to the August presidential election that President Alexander Lukashenko claims a landslide win and the opposition along with the international community considers rigged.

“Hasty commissioning and growing incidents indicate the real risk, which is amplified by limited management and competence abilities,” Lithuania said in the note seen by Bloomberg.

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