Energy

Three Decades After Chernobyl, Former Soviet Country Turns To Nuclear Power

REUTERS/Bobby Yip

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
Font Size:

The former Soviet nation of Belarus is turning to nuclear power to fix its energy woes about three decades after the country was devastated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Belarus plans to build a 2,400 megawatt nuclear plant, which will sharply reduce its reliance on Russia as a major energy supplier. Currently, Belarus pays Russia about $800 million annually for natural gas shipments.

When the Chernobyl disaster occurred April 1986, an estimated 70 percent of the fall-out from Chernobyl fell on Belarus. The radiation caused an estimated 9,000 cancer deaths and rendering parts of the country essentially uninhabitable. But the country has been planning a powerful new nuclear reactor since 2007. The first reactor will be commissioned in November 2018 and the second reactor should follow by July 2020.

“At first we felt strange, living once again so close to a nuclear site. But then I think that accidents can’t happen twice,” Nina Rybik, a local resident who was born close to Chernobyl, told Climate News Network Monday.” I’m confident that the new plant will be safe – Belarus needs energy, and nuclear power is the only way to guarantee that.”

The plant would lower the share of electricity generated using Russian gas from 80 percent in 2009 to 50 percent by 2020, according to analysis by the World Nuclear Association.

The plant will cost $11 billion, 90 percent of which will be jointly financed by the governments of Belarus and Russia. Building the reactors will create 8,000 jobs during the peak construction period and 1,000 new permanent jobs, when reactors operations begin.

The Belarussian public is increasingly supportive of nuclear energy as well. In 2005, only 28.3 percent of Belarus supported nuclear power but by 2012, support had risen to 53.5 percent.

Follow Andrew on Twitter

Send tips to andrew@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.