Lithuania's agreement with Hitachi criticized

Visaginas nuclear power plant (NPP) project would not be profitable. This is one of the reasons, why Lithuanian Green Party urges the Parliament not to approve the Concession Agreement with Japanese company Hitachi. The reasons were set out in Lithuanian Green Party's statement, prepared in cooperation with Lithuanian Energy Consultants Association and Green Policy Institute. The statement was prepared as analysis of Visaginas NPP Business Plan, upon which the Concession Agreement is based. Other criticism includes that projected decommissioning costs in the Business Plan are too low: they are estimated to be 5 to 10 times lower than costs asked from European Commission for Ignalina NPP decommissioning. Lithuanian Green Party also criticized that Business Plan ignored the costs associated with deep repositories for high level radioactive waste, among other things.

On 17th of May, Lithuanian Parliament approved National Strategy of Energy Independence, which emphasizes nuclear development, for further discussion in the Parliament. At the same day, the Law on Concession Agreement with “Hitachi” was also approved for further discussion.

Meanwhile, two citizen initiatives are collecting signatures so that referendums on the future of nuclear energy in Lithuania would take place. Also, a proposal from Parliament members to hold a referendum on this issue is being discussed in the Parliament.