MINSK, Belarus — Russia's state-owned atomic energy company will build Belarus' first nuclear power plant, worth about $10 billion.
Belarusian Prime
Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich and Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev signed
the deal Wednesday. Moscow will provide its western neighbor with loans
for the construction by Atomstroiexport.
Belarus has been hard hit by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, along with western Russian regions and Ukraine. Chernobyl is situated just miles away from the Belarusian border.
Plans
to build the plant have caused unease among Belarusians, and in
neighboring Lithuania since the plant, to be completed by 2020, will be
situated about 30 kilometers (20 miles) away from its border.
Belarusian authorities insist that nuclear power is important for Belarus, which is strongly reliant on Russian oil and gas.
