H. E. Mr John Boehner, Vilnius, 17 May 2011
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Mr John F. Kerry,
Chairman
Foreign Relations Committee
United States Senate
Ms Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
Chairman
Foreign Relations Committee
United States House of Representatives
Dear Colleagues,
The recent tragic events in Fukushima, Japan, and the recently marked 25th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant have once again reminded the world that every effort should be made to ensure the highest level of security and the lowest theoretical risk of potential incidents during the development of nuclear energy as well as design and construction of new nuclear power plants.
The international community is particularly sensitive today. Therefore, every decision regarding further development of nuclear energy has to receive thorough consideration, ensuring consistent and unconditional adherence to the safety requirements provided for in international documents as regards the design, construction, and exploitation phases of nuclear facilities, including prior extensive environmental impact assessment before making any decision on construction of a nuclear facility.
Lithuania intends to remain a nuclear energy state after the decommissioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. In cooperation with Poland, Latvia, and Estonia as our regional partners, we are preparing for the construction of a new modern regional nuclear power plant in Visaginas. We have the support of both our regional partners and the EU. The Project is being carried out in a transparent and responsible manner; we have conducted all the necessary safety studies and impact assessment of the future nuclear power plant. The IAEA mission has concluded that the potential sites are suitable for the construction of the new nuclear facility. We carefully follow the IAEA mission reviews on the events in Fukushima and are prepared to follow future IAEA recommendations on the ways to reinforce the current nuclear safety standards.
However, we are deeply concerned about the two nuclear energy projects developed in the Lithuanian neighbourhood. One of them is in Belarus, only 23 km away from the Lithuanian-Belarus border, and only 50 km away from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. The other one is in the Kaliningrad Region, near the border between Lithuania and Russia, at a mere 100 km distance from Kaunas and Klaipėda, the second and the third largest cities in Lithuania. Should any incidents take place, the radiation impact areas of the two nuclear facilities will most certainly spill over to the territory of Lithuania, reaching the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and other towns of the country as well as affecting the basins Neris and Nemunas, two major Lithuanian rivers.
Moreover, the neighbours refuse to inform Lithuanian people about these projects and hide information about seismic studies and effects of radiation on the population. Surprisingly enough, the lessons learnt from the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl and Fukushima that radiation effects know no national borders, the locations in the radius of 50 km from the nuclear facility suffer most, nuclear power plants cannot be constructed near densely populated areas, and potential benefits have to largely outweigh the potential damage to inhabitants, are being ignored.
In addition, it is important to note that Russia intends to implement and fund the project for the construction of the nuclear power plant in Belarus. Russia and Belarus have already entered into the relevant bilateral agreements. Therefore, not only Belarus, but also Russia is to be held politically and legally liable for the safety of the nuclear power plant to be constructed in Belarus.
Lithuania believes in the promise of nuclear energy, but our position is clear: nuclear power plants must be built in accordance with the highest nuclear safety and security standards, as they primarily entail responsibility vis-à-vis the country nationals and citizens of other countries. We stand for a clear, transparent, fair, and responsible process; we follow what we preach and demand it from others.
Despite repeated requests and appeals by Lithuania to provide information about the planned construction of the nuclear facilities, neither Belarus nor Russia has so far completed the environmental impact assessment of the planned nuclear power plants in accordance with accepted international standards, nor have they organized any public discussion of these projects in Lithuania, or bilateral consultations with the Republic of Lithuania, as provided by the UN Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo Convention), Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) and the Nuclear Safety Convention of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Even though, under Espoo Convention, final decisions on planned construction of nuclear power plants can only be adopted and real work can only start subsequent to conducting the analysis of the results of the environmental impact assessment, in view of the comments of the countries participating in the process and subject to conclusions from consultation with them, the nuclear power plant construction works have already started in Belarus and Russia.
Lithuania has always appreciated the support of the US as its strategic partner in addressing the key issues that affect the political and economic development of our country. We are grateful to Members of the Congress the United States of America for their letter of 9 May 2011 addressed to the US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that supports the ambition of Lithuania to develop nuclear energy and expresses concern over lack of transparency in the implementation of nuclear facility projects in Lithuania’s neighbourhood. Therefore, we call on the US to continue drawing the attention of their partners in the process of the US reset strategy of the relations with Russia to the fact that the concerns of the neighbouring Lithuania as well as our wish to only have safe energy projects developed in our neighbourhood have to be taken into consideration.
Lithuania, in its turn, will continue demanding that Russia and Belarus reply to all the questions and submit detailed information on the environmental impact assessment of the future nuclear power plants, as foreseen in the effective international agreements and conventions.
Please accept the expression of our highest consideration,
Irena Degutienė
Speaker of the Seimas
Republic of Lithuania
Emanuelis Zingeris
Chairman
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania
