Baltics reaffirm commitment to new nuclear plant

Nov 6, 2009, 11:36 GMT

Vilnius - The prime ministers of three Baltic states said Friday they remained committed to the joint construction of a new nuclear power station for the region in which Poland will also have a share.

After talks in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, the three leaders - Andrus Ansip of Estonia, Valdis Dombrovskis of Latvia and Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania - issued a joint statement saying an unnamed 'strategic investor' would be invited to join the four states in construction of a new nuclear facility.

   The plant would be located near the town of Visaginas, Lithuania, where the existing Ignalina nuclear power plant operates, they said.

'The prime ministers took note of the development of the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project and agreed to invite a strategic investor to join the project. The prime ministers reconfirmed the status of Estonia, Latvia and Poland as project partners,' together with Lithuania, the joint statement said.

Plans for the construction of a new reactor have made slow progress over a number of years.

Closure of the Soviet-era Ignalina plant, which is the only nuclear plant in the Baltic states and is of a similar design as the infamous Chernobyl reactor, was one of the terms under which Lithuania was allowed to join the European Union in 2004.

Lithuania subsequently lobbied for the plant to be granted an extension of its life span but was rebuffed by the EU.

Ignalina is scheduled to be switched off at the end of this year, raising fears of an energy shortage and reliance on Russian energy supplies until a replacement is ready. That is unlikely to be earlier than 2020, according to current estimates.

Russia has plans to build its own nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad enclave, located between Poland and Lithuania, to compete with any new Lithuanian facility.