UN nuclear agency backs Lithuania's NPP plans

Lithuania's president has secured the support of the UN nuclear watchdog for the Baltic state's plans to continue its nuclear program after the closure of its Soviet-era nuclear power plant.

European Union member Lithuania is to shut down the second reactor of its Ignalina NPP by late 2009, in line with EU nuclear safety requirements, and to build a new plant of about the same capacity of 3,600 MW by 2015, a project expected to cost $3-4 billion.

"Lithuania, along with neighboring Latvia, Estonia and Poland, plans to build a third unit of the power plant," Valdas Adamkus said at a meeting with Mohammad ElBaradei in Vienna Thursday on the sidelines of the board session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

These plans are part of another energy project to link the ex-Soviet state's power grid to that of neighboring Poland.

ElBaradei backed Lithuania, which also plans to join the IAEA Board of Governors in 2007-2008, and promised it and the neighboring Baltic states support, including in storing radioactive waste.

Under pressure from European countries, Lithuania decommissioned the Ignalina NPP's first power-generating unit in 2004. The decision made the Lithuanian energy sector more dependent on Russian natural gas supplies.

The country could have run the NPP much longer, with the first and second units being operational until 2008 and 2032, respectively.

The Ignalina NPP is similar to the one in Chernobyl, Ukraine, the scene of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

SOURCE: RIA Novosti

DATE: Mar 09, 2007

Topics: NPP, Lithuania