Energy security

Belarus's Russian-Built Nuclear Reactor Driving Lithuanian Officials Insane

Construction of the Belarusian NPP, the first power unit of which is expected to be commissioned in 2018, began in 2013, after Minsk concluded an agreement with Russia's Rosatom, and received a $10 billion Russian credit line for the plant's construction. The plant's second unit is expected to go online by 2020. The plant, being built in the town of Astravyets in northwestern Belarus, is to be situated near the Belarusian-Lithuanian border, a fact which has left that Baltic nation's leaders hysterical, but not for the reason one might first think. 

Last week, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite called the project an "existential" threat to European security. The plant, according to Grybauskaite, "presents a danger to the whole region, and for the residents of Belarus itself. The security of the Astravyets [plant] is a question of the EU's security. This is an existential question of our security."