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Bikini DayAll together – one goal,
Gediminas Rimdeika,Medical doctor/ Green Party of Lithuania

International Forum, 2019 March 1 Bikini Day Japan Gensuikyo National Conference
Shizuoka, February 27, 2019

Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Bikini Atoll, Chernobyl and Fukushima – how many more lessons, related with dangerous radiation to humanity, are there waiting for us? Lithuania, until the year of 2009, was on the list of atomic states, as that year Ignalina nuclear power plant was shut down after operating for 26 years. The closure of Ignalina nuclear power plant was due to the year of 2004, when Lithuania joined NATO and the European Union. As the government of Lithuania was changing, the attitudes towards nuclear energy were changing as well, so finally Lithuanian people said NO TO NUCLEAR ENERGY during the referendum in 2012. Even 62.68% of the citizens were against of the construction of a new nuclear power plant, and then the preliminary contract with the Japanese company Hitachi, which offered the third – generation, improved safety level reactor ABWR (Advanced Boiling Water Reactor), was canceled.

Lithuania, aiming for the energy independence, turned to a different path. In February, the year of 2014, the ship Independence FSRU (an LNG carrier designed as a floating LNG storage and regasification unit) reached Klaipeda port in Lithuania. At present, 36% of energy consumption structure consists of oil and its products, 30% of natural gas, 19% of renewable energy sources and 15% of other types.

The people of Lithuania, who survived the accident of Chernobyl nuclear power station (7212 young people were taken to eliminate the consequences of the accident) do not forget the Japan tragedy in 1945 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in 1954 at Bikini Atoll.

The exhibition of 30 paintings, presented by Gensuikyo, was one more opportunity to remember and remind us of the horrors that Japanese people had to experience. It received a great interest in Vilnius Medical library, Elektrenai city library. The exhibitions were opened by Japanese Ambassador of Lithuania. During the displays, that took place in the gymnasiums in Vilnius, Lentvaris, the students were taught valuable history lessons, where the destructive features of bombs were discussed and the deadly power of “peaceful atom” at nuclear power plants. Also, the exhibition was included to the firefighters’ training plan in the Lithuanian Fire Department.

The proverb says, that it is better to see once than to hear many times. Before the opening of exhibitions I personally gave a countless number of speeches at schools where I was telling what I saw in Hiroshima and Nagasaki museums, what tremendous sufferings Japanese people had to face. It is quite difficult to explain that by words, but pictures and paintings made a huge impression. For many times I heard the same question at schools – what can I do to ban the nuclear weapon, to prevent from similar tragedies. Last year, the exhibition in the government was coordinated with the prime minister’s visit to Japan, which showed the government’s approach to this tragedy. In this way, we were encouraged to talk about this as broadly as possible. It all made an even bigger sense, because the memories from the accident in Chernobyl were still alive, when the majority of Lithuanian citizens faced the negative consequences of it. Every year, on 26 April, the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, the Lithuanian youth organize the processions, to recall not only the consequences of the nuclear power plant, but also the crimes of radiation and nuclear bombs in Japan.

The exhibitions in Lithuanian Parliament and the government, gave the parliamentarians, government members and foreign visitors the opportunity to witness the consequences not only theoretically, but also visually. The government of Lithuania highly appreciates the work done by Your – Gensuikyo organization, and thanked in a written form for the sent exhibition – we greatly thank You for the visual lessons of horrible history and we wish the greatest success in all the future projects.

Recently, one of the biggest Lithuanian television channels LNK (Free Independent Channel) filmed a broadcast about a being finished Astrava nuclear power plant in Belarus, which is located 20 km from the border of Lithuania. I was personally a participant in this broadcast and presented the exhibition pictures as a visual instrument in my speech. All the Lithuanian people will have a fair opportunity to see all this on television screens.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located 600km from Lithuania. However, at the location only 20km from Belarus territory and 50km from our capital Vilnius, the Astrava nuclear power plant is being built. It is a ticking bomb for the whole Lithuania. In the event of an accident at the nuclear power plant, the evacuation zone includes the residents of Vilnius suburbs as well. Two blocks of 1200 megawatts are being installed in the nuclear power plant, for which a Russian company ‘Rosatom’ provides finansation and makes construction works. It is known that several fires and accidents have already occurred, but Lithuania does not get proper information of what is happening on the construction site. In 2017 it was approved by the United Nations Arhus Convention that Astrava nuclear power plant is being built without the public approval. Lithuania is still not receiving the responses from Belarus about the nuclear site’s seismic and geological surveys, stress tests and other security related information. Belarus should cooperate with IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), specialized SEED mission (Site and External Event Design), in order to correctly and objectively assess the environmental and safety criteria.

A few days ago in Geneva took place an Espoo meeting (United Nations Environmental Impact Assessment Convention*), which approved a vote of 30 votes (out of 36 countries) on the Espoo report on Lithuania's complaint about the Astrava ( Belarus) nuclear power plant. The report acknowledged that Belarus had violated three points of the Espoo Convention: 1) wrongly chosen the location of the construction; 2) did not consult with the parties investigating the environmental impact; 3) improperly prepared the documents of environmental impact. This is the final and unchangeable decision, Lithuania has proved the absurdity of this project and incompatibility with international requirements. Very sorry, but this project cannot now be corrected and stopped. The complaint was handled for several years, it was too long. Consequences - a danger to Europe and to the world and for Belarus and for the companies, involved in the project, lost good international reputation.

This is a document voted by most of the parties to the Convention.
https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/env/documents/2019/ece/IC/Ostrovets/1819568E.pdf

Seeing Your example and uniting the forces all over the world we will achieve a complete ban of nuclear weapons.


*The Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (informally called the Espoo Convention) is a United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) convention signed in Espoo, Finland, in 1991 that entered into force in 1997. The Convention sets out the obligations of Parties—that is States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention—to carry out an environmental impact assessment of certain activities at an early stage of planning. It also lays down the general obligation of States to notify and consult each other on all major projects under consideration that are likely to have a significant adverse environmental impact across boundaries.