VILNIUS - Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas has urged Lithuania's Baltic neighbors to help take up the burden of building a new nuclear power plant that would ensure a degree of energy independence for the region after the second reactor of the existing plant in Ignalina is shut down in 2009.
He told an international energy conference in Vilnius last week that he would try to enlist Poland's help as well.
"All facts show that only three countries could solve such a problem of inter-state importance. I cannot imagine that Lithuania could do that alone. It is a concern of three countries, probably involving Poland," Brazauskas said on Jan. 26.
He noted that decisions had to be agreed on, envisaging at least a 10-year perspective and ensuring energy supply to all three Baltic states.
Among reasons for building a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, Brazauskas said there was a well-developed infrastructure in Visaginas, where the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is located, and that Lithuanian society is not against the idea of being home to a nuclear energy production facility.
"All these are big pluses," he said. "The mood of the country's public institutions and society would contribute to that."
Conference attendants passed a memorandum according to which Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian energy companies would prepare a joint feasibility study on a new nuclear plant.
Representatives of Latvia's and Estonia's energy companies, Latvenego and Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy), said they were interested in a new nuclear power plant and were ready to take part in the joint work.
However, Gunnar Okk, former chairman of Estonian Energy, said the joint declaration was a "hollow paper." According to him, the memorandum should have been signed by the three countries' economy ministers, but this did not happen.
Speaking at a seminar in Tallinn, Okk also said time was running out.
Indeed, Lithuania's leadership is stressing the urgency for a speedy decision.
"A political decision will be made after this study - which will answer questions about the feasibility and financing of a new plant - is conducted," Economy Minister Kestutis Dauksys told a news conference last week. "Starting in 2015, all Baltic countries will be facing energy shortages, and a new atomic plant is a way of solving this problem," he said.
Rymantas Juozaitis, CEO of Lithuanian Energy, said the study would be part of a common Baltic energy strategy.
Built over 20 years ago, the Ignalina plant has two Soviet RBMK-type reactors of the kind that were used in Chernobyl and are considered unsafe. Within the framework of its EU membership commitments, Lithuania shut down the first INPP reactor at the end of 2004, with the second one scheduled to be closed in late 2009.
The Lithuanian government is expected to endorse a renewed national energy strategy this year, which will also underline the need for a new nuclear power plant. Leaders, including President Valdas Adamkus, are of the opinion that Lithuania should remain a nuclear-energy dependent country.
