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“I interacted with you a year ago, from October 1-5 last year, when functional exercises were carried out at the state level. We are pleased that the main evaluations of our municipalities, which should first take urgent protective measures, that is, the Vilnius district and the Švenčionys district have made significant progress in this area.
From July 21 to 25, we carried out a practical assessment of the municipalities that are within 100 km of the nuclear power plant under construction. (…) The message is that the municipalities look with benevolence, prepare, make efforts, we, like PAGD, other state institutions in the field of civil protection, are determined to provide all possible practical and methodological assistance ”, – according to Seimas National Security and Defense Committee (NSGC) Mindaugas Kanapickas, deputy director of the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), said at the meeting.
The Deputy Director of PAGD regretted that a practical assessment of the Vilnius City Municipality’s readiness had not been carried out during the mentioned period.
“I also had to communicate with specialists, I cannot name the reasons. Perhaps, due to COVID-19, perhaps the people in the municipal administration did not find the time, the roads or were too busy at that time. (…)
In Vilnius there is enough potential for people involved in civil protection. In our opinion, they have sufficient understanding. This is also shown by the results of our latest inspections. And this year we plan to carry out the planned city of Vilnius. civil protection inspection, ”said M. Kanapickas.
He criticized the attitude of Vilnius
NSGK President Dainius Gaižauskas from the Green Peasants Group stated that this meeting was much needed and helped to identify existing gaps.
“We face a bit of the problem of two levels of governance, when the situation is resolved at the state and municipal level. In the event of a disaster in Astrava, the state is generally prepared. We know what to do, the tools that are needed.
The training we have carried out has revealed our shortcomings and shortcomings – in terms of the supply of iodine tablets, security measures, time, means and methods of reporting the disaster, cleaning, evacuation, food reserves. These issues are resolved at the state level. Some measures have already been distributed to the municipalities, but not all municipalities are not only distributed, but also have gaps in their planning level, which can be evaluated as very irresponsible activities ”, said D. Gaižauskas.
The committee chairman stressed that Vilnius did not participate in any training and was the only municipality that ignored the PAGD’s request to participate in the survey, which they lack in preparation for a possible disaster at the Astrava nuclear power plant.
“It cannot be that Vilnius falls in a certain area, but it does not participate anywhere, especially when state trainings are organized. The beach was installed, but Astravas starts the next day, and we don’t even know if they are ready. What will you do? , Vilnius residents? That was just a question. Of course, the state would react, but that ignorance showed such a gap that the two types of government are not communicating at the moment, “said D. Gaižauskas.
According to the chairman of the NSGC, the government has already created a threat management group, which will summarize all the information on systemic problems and propose changes to the law.
“In a radius of 30 km, all municipalities know what to do, it is planned. Iodine tablets are given, but they get stuck in the municipality, the elders didn’t distribute them or something like that. According to PAGD’s calculation, (…) a small municipality on the border (Švenčionys municipality) has distributed only 10 percent. everything ”, said D. Gaižauskas.
There was talk of a two-level problem
Laurynas Kasčiūnas, a member of the Seimas NSGK of the Lithuanian Christian National Democratic Union (TS-LKD) faction, regretted after the meeting that the preparations for the start-up of the Astrava nuclear power plant were being discussed, as if we had three or four more years.
“After all, the physical commissioning of the Astravas Nuclear Power Plant will take place on Friday. It will power up and, starting in the first quarter of next year, the first unit should start operating at full capacity. There are several stages, and With each stage, the risk of accidents and incidents increases.
We have two or three months, and what we heard today about the preparation of the system left me with the feeling that there is a delay of two or three years, ”said L. Kasčiūnas.
The parliamentarian identified the lack of communication between state and municipal institutions as the biggest problem.
“For example, government agencies have bought iodine tablets. Not only are they already there, but they are also delivered to the municipalities. But if you ask me if we have received the answer that those iodine tablets are already in the population, or that the population knows exactly where to go if they need them, we do not have reliable information in that place because there is no control mechanism in that place. . “Said L. Kasčiūnas.
At the same time, the politician says that he has heard the arguments of the municipalities that they are constantly being given new obligations, but they are not giving money.
“The state then offers them to look for some type of project, (…) in that sense the burden of obligations is burdened and not enough resources are allocated. There is a state problem here, “said L. Kasčiūnas.
The parliamentarian is convinced that modifications should be made to the law so that in the field of nuclear safety, a representative or institution authorized by the government has the exclusive right to enter the municipality and control how things are going.
He also said that he had suggested to the committee that the situation in Vilnius should be addressed to the mayor with a call for cooperation.
“Here is a separate language about Vilnius. We examined the municipalities when Vilnius, which has a third of the population, does not participate and does not provide data. We decided to ask the mayor of Vilnius to” participate in both the exercise and the data exchange to let the residents of the capital know what to do if an incident occurs, “said L. Kasčiūnas.
As Delfi wrote, the planned physical commissioning of the Astrava nuclear power plant is scheduled for Friday. Read more about it here.
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