Lukashenka Says Minsk Mulling Second Nuclear Plant

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka says his government is considering the construction of a second nuclear power plant on Belarusian territory.

Lukashenka made the comment on April 3 in Minsk as he met with Yukiya Amano, chief of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Lukashenka said Belarus would be ready to build a second nuclear plant, so long as it had IAEA "support and cooperation."

There have been plans to build a nuclear plant in Belarus since the 1980s, during Soviet times, but the project was derailed in the aftermath of the 1986 Chornobyl disaster.

Latest plans call for a plant to be built near the northwestern town of Astravets, but that project has faced opposition from neighboring Lithuania.

Analysts say nuclear power could make Belarus less dependent on energy supplies from Russia.

With reporting from Interfax and ITAR-TASS