Too many nuclear plants planned in Baltics, says Estonian premier

Dec 10, 2010, 13:23 GMT

Riga - Estonian premier Andrus Ansip said Friday there were too many nuclear power projects in the Baltic region and that the European Union should concentrate on protecting its electricity markets from unfair competition.

'Now we are talking about many new nuclear power projects in this region: in Finland, in Estonia, in Lithuania, in Belarus and in Kaliningrad, Ansip told reporters at a conference on cooperation between Latvia and Estonia.

'Maybe there are too many nuclear power plant projects in such a small region,' he continued.

Ansip said that he was against protectionism but that 'somehow we have to protect the EU market from imported electricity.'

'In some countries they have some kind of perimeter fee to protect the EU market from imported electricity from third countries,' Ansip said.

On the failure of a tender to find a builder for a new nuclear plant at Visaginas in Lithuania, Asnip said he was 'a little bit disappointed' but hopeful that a partner would eventually be found.

'We are even thinking about our own nuclear power plant in Estonia, but it's quite clear that there is existing infrastructure already in Lithuania and the energy produced at the new nuclear power plant in Visaginas will be cheaper than our own,' he said.

Lithuania's year-long tendering process for the construction of a new nuclear power plant collapsed on December 3 after the sudden withdrawal of the leading contender, South Korean utility Kepco.

Estonia, Latvia and Poland are interested in partnering with Lithuania in the 5-billion-euro (6 billion dollar) project in order to reduce their dependence on Russian energy supplies.

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