Parliament gives the green light to Visaginas NPP

VILNIUS - Lithuanian Parliament has approved the building of the projected Visaginas nuclear power plant (NPP) and the concession agreement with the Japanese company Hitachi.

A total of 63 MPs were in favor of the draft amendments to the Law on the Nuclear Power Plant, 11 of them voted against with 33 abstentions; applause followed the MP’s decision.

The Social Democrats opposed the Visaginas NPP project most of all.

Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas says that the new plant will secure Lithuania's energy independence, attract the biggest investment in the Lithuanian history, create 6,000 jobs and increase the country's GDP with over 30 billion litas (9 billion euros).

According to him, local construction business will receive work orders for 5 billion litas. As a result of the project implementation, up to 5-6 billion litas of revenues could flow to the state budget, meanwhile, Lithuania will save around 2 billion litas in a year which are now spent on power import from abroad.

"We have no time to doubt the necessity of the new plant. In the recent years, the construction was approved by several Lithuanian governments with 3 different prime ministers () the Visaginas NPP will undoubtedly become the foundation stone in securing Lithuanian energy independence. It is clear today that we cannot depend only on the import of energy. We must create a sufficient power generation source. And bear in mind that Lithuania is one of the most external energy supply dependent countries in the European Union," the minister said.

It has been estimated that the Visaginas NPP project's value amounts to 17 billion litas. Lithuania's share in it will be 6 billion litas. It is planned to start building the plant in 2015, and launch it in 2020-2021.

In December, Poland withdrew from the project. Currently, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and a strategic investor Japanese company Hitachi are members of the project.