High costs of closing down Ignalina plant

The Ministry of Economy says it will take 2.4 billion euros ($2.12 billion) by 2020 to close down the Ignalina nuclear power plant. Cost estimates for the plant's closure, which were approved by the government April 17, could exceed $3 billion.

Both President Valdas Adam-kus and Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas agree that the costs are too high for Lithuania to cover without substantial support from the European Union.

The estimates are preliminary negotiating positions that Lithu-ania's EU negotiators will use in talks with Brussels officials when discussing Ignalina, a Soviet-era reactor that the European Union wants Lithuania to shut down by 2009.

Ignalina provides approximately 70 percent of Lithuania's energy, but has prompted fears in Western Europe because it is similar in design to the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The EU considers the design of Ignalina's Soviet-built RBMK reactors unsafe despite the spending of some $222 million over the past decade to improve security at the plant.

The closure cost estimates are useful in that they will allow Lithuanian officials to "raise this issue in Brussels by using more concrete wording and presenting more exact figures," said Lithu-ania's chief EU negotiator Petras Austrevicius.

Ignalina's closure is contentious because of its high cost, economic effects, social ramifications and the impact it could have on EU negotiations. Lithuania hopes to join the European Union in 2004, and it has yet to close negotiating chapters that include nuclear energy. Failing to close the plant on schedule could have a negative effect on Lithuania's aspirations to join. During a news conference on April 23, visiting Austrian President Thomas Klestil said that "the agreement to close the first power block in 2005 and the second in 2009 remains and will be carried out," Baltic News Service reported.

At the same news conference, Adamkus stressed the high cost of closing Ignalina completely over the next seven years.

"The financial issue is number one, and it will take enormous efforts to close down the (second) block in 2009," he said

In fact, Adamkus said, it will be nearly impossible.

"This is a complex problem, and I don't see a practical possibility for solving it in such a short time," he said.

"I think we should not make obligations on some date, like 2009, which to my knowledge has no clear logic, and should think what would happen if we were able to do it only in 2011?"Arturas Dainius, the Economy Ministry's vice minister responsible for nuclear energy issues, said estimates include items such as the "decommissioning, security of supply and environmental concerns" as well as the economic and social side effects that will arise as the facility is shut down.

He also said the figures announced last week could change as the national energy strategy is finalized and approved later in May or in June.

The Lithuanian government is slated to approve the national energy strategy early this summer. It will then be sent with any added amendments to the Parliament for authorization. Parliamentary approval would give negotiators an official mandate on Lithuania's position.