VILNIUS - Order and Justice Party leader and Lithuanian MEP Rolandas Paksas has presented a draft resolution to the European Parliament which proposes to postpone the decommissioning of the second unit of the Ignalina nuclear power plant until 2012, reports news agency ELTA
"I have always thought, and I still think that there are legal and technical possibilities to extend the operation of the power plant. Today I can support this belief by documents from the European Parliament and other European institutions passed after the accession treaty. Let us not forget that the situation both in Lithuania's energy sector and other EU member states, as well as the attitude towards the use of atomic energy for electricity production, has changed remarkably after 2004," he said.
Paksas says that "everyone today agrees that the closing of the plant at the end of this year will bring more problems to Lithuania." He warns that the electricity supply might be interrupted and therefore, Lithuania has to speak up on the possible postponement of the deadline for the plant's shutdown, due for the end of this year.
The Estonian government granted on Aug. 27 permission for the establishment of the undersea cable Estlink 2, to cost nearly 300 million euros. The power cable will be the second linking the electricity grids of Estonia and Finland, and will serve to increase power supply stability for Estonia.
Eesti Energia's subsidiary Elering OU will be in charge of the project, spanning nearly 165 kilometers between Pussi in Estonia and Porvoo in Finland. The Finnish side will be managed by Fingrid. The planned capacity for the new cable will be 650 Megawatts.
Completion of the project is expected for 2013, with funding support of 100 million euros coming from the European Union.
