More than 20,000 Lithuanians have signed an electronic petition to the government against the planned construction of a nuclear power station in neighbouring Belarus, organisers said Thursday.
Belarus plans to build a new nuclear plant that could possibly export energy to Lithuania. Lithuania agreed to close its own Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear station by 2009 as part of its 2004 EU accession agreement.
"Few people know about this project. In the case of a project of such size, neighbouring countries have to be involved in decision-making," petition organiser Mantas Juska told AFP.
The petition was sent on Wednesday to the Lithuanian president, prime minister and environment minister.
The petition expressed concern for the safety of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, a town of 500,000 inhabitants around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the planned site of the Belarussian plant.
They expressed concerns that the waters of the river Neris, which rises in Belarus and runs through Vilnius, could be polluted after being used in the Belarus nuclear station.
"Let us not allow Lithuania to become a prisoner of nuclear technology that has not been tested and of its negative impact on humans and the environment," the petition said.
The former Soviet republic of Belarus has announced a project to build the new plant by 2016 using new Russian technology.
Belarus was heavily contaminated by the explosion in 1986 of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in what is now Ukraine, the world's worst nuclear accident.
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