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Comment by rmind | Hacker News Reader

You have a point here, but I think the proximity is still concerning: compare the distance between Ignalina and Riga with the distance between Belarus' Power Plant and Vilnius.

It is worth mentioning that the UN commission has decided that the location of the Belarusian power plant was chosen in violation of the Espoo Convention. That's why it's not OK.

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Leningrad NPP is at about the same distance from Saint Petersburg, Kursk NPP from Kursk, etc. There's a power plant in the suburbs of Antwerp, another one in Lyon, another two near Toronto, etc. There's a French NPP 20 km from Luxembourg and a Swiss NPP on German border. What is your point here?

In the Soviet and other totalitarian systems the government could build wherever the hell they wanted, so their decision making is really far from exemplary. I have no idea why would you build an NPP so close to densely populated areas these days, if you have other options. I can see the issue in a smaller and densely populated country like Netherlands, but not in France which is quite more spacious.

A hundred years ago you could happily buy all sorts of drugs in your local pharmacy, but it doesn't mean it was healthy for people. We came a long way with the safety standards and general attitude towards safety. So, the point here is: embrace it instead of looking for excuses. There really were better sites to build the Belarusian NPP, but they built it in violation of the Espoo convention instead of embracing safety and cooperation with your neighbours.

P.S. It is an official recommendation by the Association of Regulators of Western Europe (WENRA) to avoid building NPPs closer than 100 km to the big cities. WENRA was established in 1999, though, so it's relatively recent.

I don't know whether Belarus signed the Espoo convention, or is a member of Association of Regulators of Western Europe, etc.. If your point is, "why don't my neighbours play according to my rules", I can see where you're coming from, but not necessarily agree.

Belarus suffered the most from Chernobyl accident, with 70% of fallout in its territory. And Chernobyl NPP wasn't even in their country. I might think that they are well positioned to do everything they can to prevent any nuclear accident happening in their NPP.

Leningrad NPP close to Saint Petersburg is inside same Russia. same with Kursk. Russia can do whatever they want inside their country. biggest issue I see here is that NPP is built close to other countries' border, very close to capital of other country despite all neighbor's objections.

that is main issue.

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