Publication details
BELARUSIAN ATOMIC POWER PLANT IN ASTRAVYETS - PROBLEMS WITH PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND PERMIT PROCEDURES
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | History has shown that a high risk of accidents happening exists when a state operates an atomic power plant. It is widely agreed that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident of 1986 is one of the two worst accidents of this type ever to happen and only the Fukushima accident may possibly have an effect of almost the same capacity, yet this question remains to be answered in time. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant itself was situated around 15 kilometres away from the Belarusian border and Belarus was the country affected the most by the disaster. One would rationally expect that such lessons are taken into account by the governments of various countries planning similar activities, especially those which had suffered the effects first-hand. Yet, in 2016, on the 30th anniversary of the disaster, we have the same country, Belarus, actively constructing a new atomic power plant in Astravyets in close vicinity to its border. Astravyets is just around 20 kilometres away from the Republic of Lithuania and around 50 kilometres away from its capital city, Vilnius. In case of an accident at the Astravyets Nuclear Power Plant, there is no doubt that Lithuania would be one of the most affected states. Due to this reason it is not surprising that the Republic of Lithuania is greatly interested in this matter and both the public and the authorities are mostly against it. In the pursuit of ensuring that projected activity does not cause significant transboundary damage, both states in question became a party to the Espoo Convention (Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context) and the Aarhus Convention (the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters). This contribution aims to review the situation through the lens of public international environmental law. Even though both above mentioned conventions are applicable to the Astravyets nuclear power plant, this contribution is focused on the first one. By describing the Espoo Convention, evaluating the relevant facts and systematically collating them to the provisions of this Convention, the authors of this article aim to determine whether Belarus complied with its obligations that rise from the international law. |