Ambassador papers over the nuclear cracks

VILNIUS - The opinion expressed by an official of the Estonian Economy Ministry that his country would not support the Lithuanian aim of extending the lifespan of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant does not reflect the official position of Estonia, says the country's Ambassador to Lithuania, Andres Tropp.

Violeta Gaizauskaite, director of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry's Information and Public Relations Department, said Tropp had also stressed on Friday that Estonia understood well the difficulties that Lithuania would go through after closing Ignalina in 2009. Tropp restated Estonia's firm support to the construction of a new nuclear plant in Lithuania.

Estonia, which is one of Lithuania's closest allies and future partner in constructing the new power plant, has recently made statements that the country will not support Lithuania's quest to negotiate extension of Ignalina N-plant's operation, which the latter grounds on the imminent economic burden.

Head of the Energy Department under the Economy and Communications Ministry of Estonia Einari Kisel told BNS Thursday that Lithuania will have sufficient energy production capacity after the closing of Ignalina N-plant in the end of 2009.

He indicated that the bigger problem was that other plants were stoked mostly by natural gas, therefore closing the Ignalina plant would cause for a considerable surge in energy prices.

Kisel also added that should the Ignalina plant be closed as planned,Lithuanians would expedite the process of constructing the new plant, while now, according to the Estonian officer, Lithuania is focusing mainly on saving the Ignalina N-plant and not on the new plant.

After the statements, the Estonian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and familiarized with the governmental commission to be in charge of evaluating all options for secure energy supply following the closing of the plant in 2009 as well as the goals of their activity among other issues.

The Foreign Ministry also made an analogous request to Lithuania's Ambassador in Tallinn Juozas Bernatonis.

Furthermore, Lithuania's Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas plans to discuss the results of this process with his Estonian counterpart in the meeting of Foreign Ministers in Brussels to take place beginning of next week.

Lithuania wants to extend the lifespan of the Ignalina power plant because a new nuclear plant would only be constructed, with participation of Latvia, Estonia and Poland, a decade after the planned decommissioning of Ignalina in the end of 2009.

Lithuania assumed the obligation of closing Ignalina during its accession in the EU, which considers Ignalina's Soviet-built RBMK-type reactors as generally unsafe. Lithuania closed the first nuclear block of Ignalina in the end of 2004.

After the country becomes deprived of nuclear energy, the Lithuanianelectricity sector will become fully dependent on natural gas supplies from Russia.

Negotiations with the European Union over the possibility of extending the lifespan of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, even though Lithuaniaitself doesn't get its hopes up over their success - should commence in the European Summit next week, March 13-14.