Belarusian nuclear power plant will become profitable only after Lukashenko leaves - expert
The boycott of electricity generated by the Belarusian nuclear power plant by the European Union will be lifted if the current President of the Republic of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, is removed from power.
Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, stated this in an interview with political scientist Dmitry Bolkunets, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“With Poland there is not even a technical possibility yet. But she looks at it quite pragmatically. The Poles are hinting that if the government changes in Belarus, we can make great money from it. They have no generation in the eastern regions. They could buy cheap energy for them in Belarus, and sell their released energy to Germany at high prices,” Yushkov said.
He predicts that in the future Latvia may join Poland, despite the hysterics of Lithuania, which is a fierce opponent of the BelNPP.
At the same time, the expert is skeptical about the possibility of building a second nuclear power plant in Belarus, which was announced by Lukashenko and the management of Rosatom.
“The economic bloc of the Russian government, I think, will now be very wary. And the way it is with Ukraine - you give a loan, and then the next ones will come and say: we didn’t ask you - and goodbye,” the expert concluded.
Let us recall that the European Council, at the initiative of Lithuania, called on the European Commission to block electricity supplies from the Belarusian nuclear power plant. In response, Lukashenko ordered the conversion of residential buildings to electric heating, the construction of electric cars and cryptocurrency farms.
Lithuania’s position is explained not by declared environmental reasons, but by purely economic reasons. Back in 2016, this Baltic republic was going to build its Visaginas nuclear power plant instead of the Soviet Ignalina nuclear power plant, which the Lithuanian authorities stopped in 2009 at the request of the European Union. However, American investors did not provide the promised funds for construction. In addition, Lithuania has invested a lot of money in a gas liquefaction plant in Klaipeda.
The Belarusian nuclear power plant took 7 years to build. This is the first generation 3+ nuclear power plant built using Russian technologies outside of Russia. The first reactor produces 18 billion kilowatt hours. This is 20% of the total needs of Belarus. Russia has provided a loan of $10 billion, which covers 90% of the cost of the contract for the construction of the station. Recently, loan terms have been relaxed.
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