Visaginas NPP

The city Visaginas is situated in the northeast of Lithuania. It had been founded in 1975 as Sniečkus for the workers of the Ignalina NPP on the shores of the lake Visaginas. Four villages had been demolished for that workers' town, with the biggest one of them known as Visaginas.

Proposals to construct a new NPP at the old Ignalina NPP site, that had been closed in accordance with Lithuania's accession agreement to the EU at the end of 2009, have been made since 2007. First discussions regarding new reactors started alread in the 1990s and were continued in the 2000s. In October 2011, the Lithuanian government informed the European Union about their construction plans.

The Visaginas Nuclear Plant Company has been set up by electricity companies of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and Poland on July 30, 2008 to be responsible for the construction of the new NPP. It is supposed to be a 1,300 MW boiling water reactor while earlier a maximum capacity of up to 3,400 MW distributed over two reactors had been announced. On July 14, 2011 the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has been selected as a strategic investor of the project. The estimated construction costs will be up to 5 billion Euros. In 2020 the NPP is supposed to be ready to be connected to the grid.

• an international anti-nuclear conference focusing on the new NPP construction plans of Lithuania, Belarus and Kaliningrad (Russia) will take place in Vilnius (LT) on December 6-8, 2011

Media coverage

• Litauen informiert die Europäische Kommission über Neubaupläne German
• Visaginas AES Various materials about the topic Latvian
• Munks un kodolatkritumu uzglabāšanas problēma Visaginā (May 11, 2012)Latvian
• Pavļuts: Latvijai līdzdalība Visaginas AES projektā nav kritiska (May 30, 2012)Latvian
• Piecas tēzes par Visaginas AES (June 12, 2012)Latvian
• Visaginas AES strīdīgo jautājumu apspriešana neesot mēneša jautājums (June 19, 2012)Latvian
• Visaginas AES būvniecība sadārdzinās (June 20, 2012)Latvian
• Vai ārzemju atomenerģijas malduguns? (June 20, 2012)Latvian
• Jūnijā Lietuva neparakstīs vienošanos ar Visaginas AES stratēģisko investoru (June 25, 2012)Latvian
• "Latvenergo" Visaginas AES projekta vērtēšanai izvēlējies piecus konsultantus (June 26, 2012)Latvian
• Ķecerīgas pārdomas jaunās atomstacijas paēnā (July 2, 2012)Latvian
• Aptauja: 45% iedzīvotāju atbalsta Latvijas dalību Visaginas atomelektrostacijas projektā (July 10, 2012)Latvian
• Briselē vides aktīvisti iestājas pret ieceri Baltijas reģionā būvēt atomelektrostacijas (July 11, 2012)Latvian
• Referendums par Visaginas AES nebūs juridiski saistošs (July 16, 2012)Latvian
• Eksperts: Visaginas AES ir šaubīga investīcija (July 27, 2012)Latvian
• Kodolreaktora inženieris: Tikai piedaloties Visaginas AES, varēsim aizstāvēt savas intereses (August 4, 2012)Latvian
• IUB liedz "Latvenergo" slēgt līgumu ar Visaginas AES konsultantu (August 6, 2012)Latvian
• Baltijas Ministru padome vienojas dibināt Visaginas AES projekta kompāniju (September 20, 2012)

Latvian

• Latvijas finansiālais ieguldījums Visaginas AES projektā joprojām nav aprēķināts (September 20, 2012)

Latvian

Further information resources

• operator website