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Astravets, Baltic, Belarus, cancer, Chernobyl, corruption, Cuba, dangers of nuclear, environment, Espoo, EU, Europe, Germany, Iskanders, Kaliningrad, Koenigsberg, Kremlin Chimes, Landsbergis, Lithuania, Lukashenka, milk, NATO, nuclear, nuclear accident, nuclear blackmail, nuclear disaster, nuclear energy, nuclear industry, nuclear power, nuclear reactors, nuclear safety, nuclear weapons, Prussia, radioactive waste, risk management, Rosatom, Russia, short-range ballistic missiles, Soviet Union, Strontium 90, transboundary impacts, Ukraine, US FDA, USA, USSR
The Belarus nuclear power station, under construction by Russian state owned Rosatom, sits on the Lithuanian border, as does the Russian one under construction in the Kaliningrad enclave. Last October, Russia deployed nuclear capable missiles to the Kaliningrad enclave, occupied by Russia since 1945, and which is on the other side of Lithuania. All are a clear and present danger to Lithuania (as well as to the rest of the Europe.) Formerly Koenigsberg Prussia, the German population of Kaliningrad was removed and replaced by Russians and others from the USSR. So, does that make it Russian even if they vote to be Russian? Historically and geographically it is Europe. Ethnic cleansing-genocide, in conjunction with occupation, made it Russian.
Kremlin Chimes is the clock to the right in the streetview image
As can be seen on the map below, Lithuania is sandwiched between the Russia occupied Kaliningrad enclave (since World War II) and the Belarus Nuclear Power Station. Formerly Königsberg, this 762 year old city has only been Russian since 1945 and was renamed Kaliningrad on July 4, 1946. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad For hundreds of years, Lithuania and Belarus were part of the same country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Belarus Thus, the call for unity against nuclear power, below, has deep historic roots.
“Russia’s missile deployment in Kaliningrad ups the stakes for Nato” Jonathan Marcus, 9 October 2016 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37600426
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_nuclear_power_plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Nuclear_Power_Plant
Bellona recently reported that Lithuania will not buy electricity from either of these Russian Nuclear Power Stations: http://bellona.org/news/nuclear-issues/2016-01-lithuania-seeks-to-sever-ties-with-russian-nuclear-plants
“Landsbergis to Lukashenka: Noose Is Ready For You On Kremlin Chimes 16.02.2017, 16:55
The first head of independent Lithuania appealed to Lukashenka.
Former chairman of the Recovery Seimas of Lithuania Vytautas Landsbergis in his speech from the balcony of the House of signatories paid the most attention to the dangers, posed by the nuclear power plant construction in Belarus, and urged Aliaksandr Lukashenka to stop the construction in Astravets, Delfi reports.
According to the professor, Lithuania is now facing a dual nuclear blackmail – the deployment of “Iskanders” and the nuclear power plant under construction in Belarus.
Landsbergis appealed to Lukashenka, rhetorically questioning whether he was ready to push Belarus to the nuclear threat for the sake of economic motives.
“It is time to appeal to Lukashenka, who is on the other side of the border – Aliaksandr, Lithuania’s ruination will not save you. A noose is ready for you on the Kremlin Chimes. It is not a distant issue, so let’s defend together. In the first place stop the Rosatom fatal construction in Astravets,” – Landsbergis said from the balcony of the House of signatories.
The first de facto head of independent Lithuania also criticized, in his words, sluggish actions of the authorities on the issue of stopping the construction in Astravets. CC-BY: https://charter97.org/en/news/2017/2/16/241100 (Emphasis our own. Apparently the sluggish authorities, in question, are either the Lithuanian government, the EU, or UN.)
“The Lithuanian government complained under UN Espoo: In their conclusion, published on the 15th of April, 2013, the Espoo convention’s Implementation Committee stated that Belarus had violated the provisions of the Espoo convention with regards to the nuclear power plant in Belarus. Underscoring Belarus’ violations of the Espoo convention, the committee urged Belarus to submit comprehensive answers to all of the questions raised by Lithuania and to take into account comments made by Lithuania’s experts. The committee also encouraged Belarus to ensure that Lithuania’s public has the opportunity to submit comments regarding the nuclear power plant’s construction“. http://www.am.lt/VI/en/VI/article.php3?article_id=462 Two, of many, criticisms listed were lack of alternative site proposals and earthquake hazards.
“The 9K720 Iskander (Russian: «Искандер»; NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system produced and deployed by the Russian Federation… The missile can also carry nuclear warheads.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander
President of Belarus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lukashenko
“Professor Vytautas Landsbergis (born 18 October 1932) is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas. Professor Landsbergis is an intellectual who has been active in Lithuania’s political arena for more than two decades, and is a notable politician who helped contribute to the demise of the Soviet Union.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vytautas_Landsbergis
http://www.dw.com/en/russia-violates-cold-war-treaty-with-cruise-missile-test/a-37555275
Clearly, as can be seen on the map, there would be transborder impacts, in the event of a nuclear disaster. Belarus has suffered greatly from transborder impacts from the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in the Ukraine, since Chernobyl was on the border. Perhaps Belarus is nonchalant about a nuclear power station because a) it is located on the border and b) Belarus has stricter standards than the US and Europe do for radiation in food, and thus can export contaminated food to the US and Europe, while importing less contaminated food (unless, of course, an accident happens first in the US or EU, which statistically is very likely, especially as nuclear power stations are slow to finish). The first radiation in food “standards” in the US were apparently to facilitate import of contaminated food from Chernobyl contaminated areas of the former Soviet Union (e.g. Ukraine, Belarus) and have been further weakened. This was suggested by the UN FAO as a way not to slow down trade! Integration of the former Soviet Union into the “capitalist” world system was more important to the US than its own people. The former Soviet Union also exported its contaminated food to Cuba. Chernobyl contaminated food has continued to show up in Europe.
The AP is in trouble for reporting that a milk sample in Belarus, near the Chernobyl exclusion zone, contained 37.5 Bq/kg of Strontium 90, compared to the 3.7 Bq/kg allowed by the government. https://nuclear-news.net/2017/01/03/belarus-nuclear-power-police-state-critique-by-ian-goddard/. Absent from the discussion is the fact that the US allows 160 Bq/kg of Strontium 90 in its food all of the time, since 1998! So, when they tell you that food is ok after an accident, you will know what they mean! 43 times higher than Belarus allows and over 4 times more than near Chernobyl! http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/…/UCM094513.pdf
The amount of strontium allowed by the EU is apparently even higher than that allowed by the US for general food and still much higher than Belarus for milk: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32011R0351 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52013PC0943
The only thing which the US and Europe have left is the right to complain about radiation in food. This right is in grave jeopardy.
“By the end of the eighties of the last century in Cuba as much as about 60% of the food imports were provided by the former Soviet Union. Due to its difficult economic situation, Cuba had neither the necessary insight nor the political strength to circumvent the detrimental genetic effects of imported radioactively contaminated foodstuffs after Chernobyl.” (“Increased sex ratio in Russia and Cuba after Chernobyl: a radiological hypothesis“, by Hagen Scherb, Ralf Kusmierz and Kristina Voigt
Environmental Health 2013 12:63 DOI: 10.1186/1476-069X-12-63© Scherb et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013 -CC-BY)
Mining Awareness + 
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