Alyaksandr Lukashenka visited the construction site for Belarus’ nuclear power plant in the Astravets district, Hrodna region, on August 9 to take part in a time capsule-laying ceremony.
The capsule contained a "massage to descendants," which was put inside a foundation stone placed at the construction site.
The message, signed by the Belarusian leader, said, "The creation of the national nuclear power generation industry is a considerable step in strengthening the country’s energy security and a powerful impetus for the acceleration of scientific and technical progress and innovative development."
"Implementing the slogan of building a strong and prosperous Belarus as a state for the people, we are starting this extremely ambitious joint investment project together with brotherly Russia, that is, the construction of the first nuclear power plant in our territory," the massage read.
Mr. Lukashenka, First Deputy Prime Minister Uladzimir Syamashka, Syamyon Shapira, head of the Hrodna Regional Executive Committee, and Aleksandr Lokshin, first deputy director general of Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, fixed a memorial tablet on the foundation stone.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Lukashenka directed that the construction of the plant should be as cheap as possible. "The plant should be a project of the highest quality," he said, according to the government’s news agency BelTA. "But it should also be cheaper than all those that the Russians and others have built in the world." He noted that the cost of Russian-built nuclear power plants was the lowest except that of Chinese ones. "But ours should be much cheaper than those that the Russians build for themselves and in other countries," he said.
