No details of nuclear plant until fall, says Lithuanian premier

Jul 12, 2010, 14:56 GMT

Vilnius - Plans to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania are going ahead, but no details are likely to emerge before the fall on how or by whom the project will be financed and built, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said Monday.

Speaking after talks in Vilnius with his Estonian counterpart Andrus Ansip, Kubilius said plans for the plant were 'acquiring both a regional and a European dimension.'

'I believe that we will be in a position to hold very specific discussions on the countries' participation in this project, the sharing of responsibilities and further implementation in the autumn,' Kubilius told reporters.

Lithuania's Soviet-era Ignalina facility was shut down on December 31, 2009, over fears that its Chernobyl-type reactors were unsafe.

Construction of a replacement facility to serve the whole region in partnership with Estonia, Latvia and Poland is expected to cost up to 5 billion euros (6 billion dollars), depending on the number and type of reactors chosen.

A tendering process to find a strategic investor from the private sector is currently underway, though no details of the companies involved are being released.

The Lithuanian government hopes the new nuclear plant will go online in 2018 to 2020, though the project has so far been characterized by years of delays and a lack of binding agreements among the potential partners.

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

Neighbouring Belarus and Russia are also drawing up plans to build nuclear power plants of their own.