Kubilius: Future of Astravets NPP is obscure

The reason for that is a complicated financial and economic situation in the country.

Lithuania, which plans to construct a new nuclear power plant in Visaginas, is ready for competition with the new NPPs of Russia and Belarus, which are to appear in the same region. It has been stated by Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius in his interview to the national radio.

“A possible competition should not disquiet us, it should disquiet the other side,” believes the head of the government. According to him, Lithuania has certain advantages in the framework of nuclear energy projects development. “Firstly, we have infrastructure necessary for the NPP, which makes our project cheaper,” Kubilius noted. Lithuania is set to build the new nuclear power plant at the site of Ignalina nuclear power plant shut down in 2009 at the request of Brussels as having an unsafe Chernobyl-like RBMK (high power channel-type reactor). “Secondly, we realize for which market the generated electricity would be offered, - the Prime Minister said. – It will be a regional market of the Baltic states, where energy needs are very great.”

According to Kubilius, as PRIME-TASS informs, Baltic NPP in Kaliningrad Region of Russia, could face a problem with realization of its output. “It is not clear where its electric power would be sold,” he noted. According to Lithuanian experts, Russia expects to export surplus energy from the Baltic NPP to Europe though Lithuanian power supply network. However, this network is just planned to be joined with the electric energy system of Western Europe. Besides, the decision on such export would not be necessarily positive, according to experts.

The future of Astravets (Ostrovets) nuclear power plant in Belarus seems “obscure” to the Prime Minister, due to “the complicated financial and economic situation in the country.”

As stressed by the head of the Lithuanian government, Lithuania is to start constriction of Visaginas nuclear power plant in 2014, and it would be launched in 2010. Initially it is planned to build one reactor of 1,700 megawatts. “The maximum capacity of the power plant could be up to 3,400 megawatts, but so far we have decided to be restricted to a half of that,” the Prime Minister explained.