Election reopens debate on nuclear power issue

  • 2003-01-09
VILNIUS

Lithuania's presidential elections have not only thrown the Ignalina power plant back into the public debates, but the idea of nuclear power for Lithuania as well.

President elect Rolandas Paksas said he vows to negotiate with European Commission and Lithuanian officials over construction of a new nuclear reactor.

"I will talk with EC officials and leaders of our country about the possibility for to build a new up-to-date Western nuclear reactor," Paksas said at a news conference Jan. 6.

The president-elect's words almost echo earlier statements by Adamkus. "Nuclear energy is the cleanest and cheapest energy in the world and Lithuania can not refuse it," Adamkus told reporters on the eve of presidential elections.

The Soviet-built Ignalina nuclear power plant has been the focus of negotiations between the Baltic country and Brussels during talks on acceding to the European Union.

Lithuania has continually pledged to close the first Chernobyl-type RBMK reactor in 2005 and the second in 2009 based on EU's pledge to provide financial assistance for the technical decommissioning and elimination of shutdown consequences.

But government officials are reluctant to part with the crucial plant that currently produces 70 percent of Lithuania's megawatts and is a key source of export revenues.

Last year's results only intensified the country's attachment to nuclear power. Energy output increased in the last quarter, according to plant officials. Ignalina's information center said it had produced 14.14 billion kilowatt hours of energy, 12.98 billion of which were sold the consumers.

Indeed, Ignalina is a reliable source of export revenues for Lithuania. The state-run power transmission company Lietuvos Energija (Lithuania Energy) exported a total of 6.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2002, a whopping 63.4 percent increase over the previous year.

Most of Lithuania's electricity exports are bought up by Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

The EU considers the plant's reactors to be unsafe and has applied pressure on Lithuanian ministers to shut them down.

According to estimates by Lithuanian officials, the total cost of decommissioning Ignalina could reach up to 3 billion euros. Over the past decade Lithuania has spent some 250 million euros improving safety at the plant, and the EU has promised 425 million euros in funding during the 2004 - 2006 period.