Trio to join forces for nuclear reactor

By Dace Akule

Date: 09/03/06

The three main power producers in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - Lietuvos Energija, Latvenergo and Eesti Energia - signed on Wednesday (8 March) a memorandum on building a nuclear reactor in Ignalina (Lithuania), whose Soviet-era reactor will be closed by 2009.

The three Baltic states have agreed to build a nuclear reactor in a bid to increase independence from Russian energy and avert the predicted crisis of supply shortages after 2015.

The new reactor is to cost EUR 2-3 billion and should be ready by 2015.

The energy companies' move comes a week after Baltic prime ministers announced several plans to address security of energy supply, such as integrating the three countries' energy markets by 2009 and connecting the Baltic energy networks with other EU countries.

"In this field the EU is completely dependent on supplies from Russia. As a result, they can be used as an economic and political weapon," said Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis.

Local environmentalists, however, criticised the plan saying that nuclear energy had no place in modern Europe.

"The governments need to look for alternative solutions and make a serious assessment of the costs and benefits of building a new nuclear power plant," said Alda Ozola-Matule, chief of the Latvian Green Movement, adding that a new site in Ignalina would be a "very risky object".

Conservation group Friends of the Earth has announced that it will bring the plan to international attention during the campaign marking the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

Mark O'Donovan of nuclear industry group Foratom said the Baltic decision was "part of a nuclear revival that has confirmed itself over the last 12 months".

Article reports that the three main power producers in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - Lietuvos Energija, Latvenergo and Eesti Energia - signed a memorandum on 8 March 2006 on building a nuclear reactor in Ignalina (Lithuania), whose Soviet-era reactor was to be closed by 2009. The three Baltic states hade agreed to build a nuclear reactor in a bid to increase independence from Russian energy and avert the predicted crisis of supply shortages after 2015.