Jury Bandazhevsky calls Belarusian nuclear power plan a populist idea

Belarusian news portal Naviny.by recently interviewed professor Bandazhevsky in Brussels, and discussed the current situation with radioactive pollution in Belarus, mentioning also the perspective of the nuclear power plant construction.

"To my opinion, we just do not need a nuclear power plant, that's a
populist idea, first of all because for the world community this step will
automatically mean that Belarusians has forgotten about Chernobyl and they do
not need any assistance anymore. Second reason (and the most important one) is
th nuclear waste that will produce higher radioactive background. In case the
waste will be exported to Russia, we put ourselves into even more dependancy on
Russia then before. Third reason is that the plant will not solve the energy
problem. The apartments will get electricity, but the industry still needs large
amounts of oil and gas. The authorities tend to close the Chernobyl problem,
instead of taking care for the health of the nation. When the acciden in
Chernobyl happened, Belarus was openly announcing the problems, and the world
community was helping us. In November the UN Assembly closed the Chernobyl
issue, so to say, take care for your "zone" yourselves."

Jury Bandazhevsky is a former rector of Gomel Medical Institute, a scientist who studied the concequences of exposion to small radioactivity doses on the human body. In June 2001 he was sentenced for 8 years in prison (officially for receiving bribes, but many see the reason for his imprisonment in his research and critics towards the policies of the current government and president on polluted regions and health care connected to Chernobyl consequences). He was freed from prison in August 2005 and currently continues to work in France.