Atomic Plant at EU’s Border Spooks Leaders Amid Risk Warning
- EU set to call for ban of electricity imports from Belarus
- Lithuania has warned of growing risks at Belarus nuclear plant
Lithuanian police during an emergency drill amid concerns over the nuclear plant in Belarus.
Photographer: Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images
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.