v. April 8, 2009. Belarus is not going to give up on the construction of a nuclear power plant, even during the global financial and economic crisis, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said during his working trip to the Gomel oblast.

“We will build the nuclear power plant, however hard it might be. At my level, the postponement of the construction for a year or two has not been considered. We are not going to do it,” the head of state said.

All the works are performed according to schedule, the President said. The Russians are ready to issue a loan for this project. “We have decided to build a super-advanced nuclear power plant to supply people with cheaper energy. So we will do it,” the President said. Alexander Lukashenko cited the data of the sociological poll. More than 60% of Belarusians support now the construction of the nuclear power plant. “We are surrounded by nuclear power plants, and God forbid if something happened, the results would be comparable to the Chernobyl disaster. At the same time we are deprived of the benefit the whole world has. Europe, where once green parties campaigned against nuclear power, has been making strides on the way of development of nuclear power engineering. Today nuclear power plants are built in China, Russia, the countries that have mineral resources, while we import energy resources. This will be the greatest achievement of our time. A nuclear power plant is not only energy. It is a brand new level of the development of the state. We need this. Crises come and go. We need to teach people new technologies,” the President said.