Lithuanian nuclear power plant in final countdown

Dec 31, 2009, 13:52 GMT

Vilnius - As preparations were underway Thursday for the shutdown of the only nuclear power plant in the Baltic states, opinion is divided on whether the closure of the Chernobyl-type plant is positive and how Lithuania's reliance on Russia could change as a result.

The Ignalina facility in Lithuania came online in 1983 and is due to go offline at 11 pm Thursday (2200 GMT), fulfilling a commitment to close the plant that Lithuania gave when it joined the European Union in 2004.

Residents of the nearby town of Visaginas, which is heavily dependent upon the nuclear plant for employment, plan to shine torches into the sky after midnight as 'lights of hope' for the future.

Viktor Shevaldin, the chief executive of the Ignalina facility, who is overseeing the shutdown, expressed mixed feelings about his task.

'So far not a single country in the world with at least part of its electricity generated by nuclear power plants has abandoned this type of energy altogether. Lithuania will be the first,' he was quoted as saying by the Baltic News Service Thursday.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite adopted a more positive tone on December 26 when she said the closure of the Soviet-era plant would mark the start of a new era for her country.

'After the decommissioning of Ignalina, 2010 will be the start of our energy independence. Lithuania's energy system was and continues to be dependent on Russia because all supplies of gas and electricity are related to that country,' she said.

'Dependence on one country was caused by the old power plant. The issues around it tied Lithuania to Russia,' she added.

However, following the closure, Lithuania will increase the output of its conventional power stations but also increase the amount of energy it imports from other countries - including Russia. Analysts expect electricity prices to increase by as much as a third as a result.

Plans for a replacement nuclear power plant have been thwarted by delays, but a tender was finally issued on December 8 with the bidding process expected to last six months, Lithuanian Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas said Wednesday.

Companies, including EDF, E.ON, GDF Suez, Enel, Iberdrola, RWE and Vattenfall, have been named as potential investors in the media, but Sekmokas said no bidders would be named until the tendering process was complete.

'On the one hand, they want this process to be transparent, but on the other hand, they want confidentiality to be ensured. It is their choice which projects and countries in which they want to invest,' he said.

Investors will also have to work with Latvia, Estonia and Poland, which will be partners in a project that could cost up to an estimated 15 billion euros (22 billion dollars) and is unlikely to be completed before 2020.

Meanwhile, work will continue on dismantling the Soviet-era plant and disposing of its waste - a process expected to take 30 years.

The European Union has so far pledged 1.4 billion euros (2 billion dollars) towards the cost of decommissioning the Ignalina plant.