Safety recommendations put forward by peer review experts for the Belarusian nuclear station should be addressed without delay and any decision on commercial operation must be based on guarantees of the highest levels of safety, energy commissioner Kadri Simson said.

In forthright remarks at a plenary session of the European parliament, Ms Simson said she had written to Belarus’s prime minister Roman Golovchenko asking that the Belarusian government makes sure “all the steps in the commissioning process are taken in full respect of the highest safety standards” and that stress test recommendations deemed of high priority by European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (Ensreg) are implemented as a minimum before commercial operations start.

Ms Simson said: “In the current difficult political situation, the technical cooperation with Belarus on the completion of the peer review exercise represents the last remaining channel for maintaining accurate, up to date knowledge of the safety situation at the Belarusian nuclear station.”