OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2012.  Director General of ROSATOM Sergey Kirienko has sent an open letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Azhubalis, Minister of Energy Arvydas Sekmokas and Minister of Environment Gediminas Kazlauskas of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Sergey Kirienko’s letter reads:

“My open letter has been motivated by the Republic of Lithuania officials’ statements concerning alleged non-transparency of the Baltic nuclear power plant project, which is being built in Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation, which have become more frequent recently. I deem it necessary to address you openly, through mass media, because I believe that the Lithuanian society must be fully aware of all aspects of this project. I have no doubts that an open discussion of one of most advanced NPP projects will facilitate building up positive attitudes of the Lithuanian citizens to nuclear power as a whole.

Baltic nuclear power plant (NPP) is built to the Russian VVER design, which pertains to Generation III+ reactors and meets all most rigorous, post-Fukushima safety standards that have been confirmed by results of conducted stress tests. When presenting the information about the project to neighboring countries, we act in accordance with the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (the Espoo Convention) in spite of the fact that the Russian Federation has not ratified this Convention. The openness and transparency are most important principles of the implementation of the Baltic NPP project.

In 2009 diplomatic notes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation with an environmental impact assessment report on Baltic NPP and a proposal to hold consultations and public hearings were sent via diplomatic channels to embassies of Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Belarus as well as to the European Union Delegation in Moscow. Over three years we have responded to multiple requests of representatives of the neighboring states and handed over supplementary documents. By date, official consultations on the Baltic NPP project have been conducted in the spirit of the Espoo Convention with representatives of 9 out of 10 of the above listed states. These exchanges of opinions have demonstrated goodwill of the neighboring countries towards the project and have not offered objections to it on the part of our partners.

The Republic of Lithuania has happened to be the only state of the Baltic Region, which has not agreed even to bilateral consultation so far. At that, we believe that we have done the outmost to inform the Lithuanian party on the Baltic NPP project to the fullest extent. We gave the Lithuanian party answers to specific technical questions for many times. Over the recent three years MFA of Russia has sent 10 diplomatic notes annexing responses of ROSATOM to Lithuania’s questions and supplementary materials, which volume is many times as large as standards established by the Espoo Convention. Eventually, we have provided Lithuania with much more information about the Baltic NPP project than the countries, which have already expressed their satisfaction with the received information and held consultations. Besides, in June 2011 we sent to the Republic of Lithuania, and handed over personally to the Consul General of the Republic of Lithuania in Saint-Petersburg, the document “The Environmental Impact Assessment of Baltic NPP” translated into the Lithuanian language. At that, for many times we proposed the Lithuanian party to hold public hearings and official consultations on the Baltic NPP project in Lithuania at any time and in any place.

We assume the Lithuanian party has questions, which point is not fully clear for us as it comes from the official communication. That is why we propose to hold consultations in person, which is not to approve or disapprove the Baltic NPP project by the Lithuanian party but to make clear the emerging issues and to start a direct dialogue of experts. There are possibly some additional obstacles to the bilateral consultations we are not aware of. We do not rule out that the cause is the competition. However, once again we ask you to receive a delegation of the Russian party for the official consultations. It is undoubtedly your discretion whether to have the consultations on the Baltic NPP project in Lithuania or not, and we will treat any decision of yours with due respect. 

I reconfirm the readiness to come in person with a group of Russian experts to Vilnius for an open and direct dialogue on the Baltic NPP project.

I am absolutely positive that an open discussion of NPP construction projects being implemented in Russia and Lithuania that involves the general public will facilitate the strengthening good neighbor relations between our countries and fully meets the interests of citizens of Russia and Lithuania.