VISAGINAS - Residents of the Lithuanian town of Visaginas are demanding that the new nuclear power plant slated for construction nearby is named after their town.
A session of the municipal council held Aug. 30 decided to call the plant 'Visaginas', rejecting alternatives including Baltic, Viltis (Hope), Aukstaitija and Druksiai. And 'Ignalina II' 's the name by which some reports routinely refer to the future plant 's was most definitely not on the agenda.
It is a matter of some annoyance in Visaginas that everyone refers to 'Ignalina' when in fact it is some distance from both the current facility and its planned replacement.
Yetaerina Kucalova, senior co-ordinator of projects for the Visagines municipality told The Baltic Times: "The problem is that Ignalia [the existing plant, due to be decommissioned by 2009] is another town completely. Most people think that because of the name, it is close to Ignalia town. But people arrive in Ignalina and ask 'Where is the nuclear power plant?' and have to be sent to Visagines, which is much closer. People is Visagines are very angry about this.
"In any case, Ignalina is trying to promote itself as a tourist destination and does not want to be linked with the nuclear power station. In Visagines, we are proud of the nuclear plant. We are sad that the old one is closing as most of the jobs in our town rely upon it and we have a lot of nuclear expertise here. Visagines was built because of the power station. People came from all over the former Soviet Union to build the town. That is why we want to be part of the new nuclear plant. Ignalia wants to be a tourist town but we are happy to be a working town."
