Visaginas NPP

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Summary

Visaginas NPP is a regional project intended to provide electricity for Lithuania instead of closed Ignalina NPP. As of October 2013, there are 3 regional partners - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia involved in the project, in addition to strategic investor GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. In 2012, Lithuanian citizens voted against building a new NPP in the country. However, the talks about building the plant continue.


The city of Visaginas is situated in the northeast of Lithuania, 150 km from Vilnius and 8 km from the border with Latvia. It was founded in 1975 as Sniečkus for the workers of the Ignalina NPP on the shores of Lake Visaginas. Four villages had been demolished for that workers' town, with the biggest one of them known as Visaginas.[1]

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[2] at the end of 2009, have been made since 2007[3]. First discussions regarding new reactors started already in the 1990s and were continued in the 2000s[2]. In October 2011, the Lithuanian government informed the European Union about their construction plans[4].

The main reason Visaginas NPP proponents give for building new NPP in Lithuania is supposed energetic independence from Russia.

The Visaginas Nuclear Plant Company have 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. Poland later withdrew from the project. It is supposed to be a 1,300 MW boiling water reactor[4] while earlier a maximum capacity of up to 3,400 MW distributed over two reactors had been announced[2]. On July 14, 2011[4] the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has been selected as a strategic investor of the project.[3] The estimated construction costs is 5 billion Euros[2]. However, given interest, inflation and expenses caused by changes in the value of investments it is likely that the costs will be 6.8 billion Euros [5].

On October 14th, 2012, 62,6 percent of Lithuanian citizens, who attended a nation-wide consultative referendum, voted "No" on a statement “I am in favor of constructing a new nuclear power plant in the Republic of Lithuania”. After that, Lithuanian politicians were trying to downplay the results of the referendum, questioning the legal consequences of the referendum. The results of the referendum are legally binding according to the Law on Referendum [6]. Following the referendum, Lithuanian Parliament formed a special working group in the Parliament, to suggest how to implement the results of the referendum [7]. The working group suggested that the Government should prepare the most cost-optimal and consumer friendly strategy of electricity supply for Lithuania [8]. Following that, the Government formed a work group to analyze the project and to propose the most cost-optimal and consumer friendly model of Lithuanian energy supply system. The group has concluded that it is not possible to evaluate now, what impact Visaginas NPP might have to sinchronization of European grid, as well as it is not possible to evaluate the questions of Visaginas NPP power reserve [9] In 2020-2022 the NPP is supposed to be ready to be connected to the grid[2].

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

Critics

contact details of critical groups working against this facility

  • group name, phone, email, website, postal address
  • NGO "Community Atgaja"
phone: +370 699 33661
email: info AT atgaja.lt[10]
http://www.atgaja.lt
  • NGO "Susivienijimas ŽALI.LT"
phone: +370 654 73926
email: zali.vilnius AT gmail.com[10]
http://www.zali.lt
  • The Lithuanian Environmental NGO’s Coalition"
phone: +370 5 255 9146
email: kestutis.navickas AT aplinkosauga.lt[10]
http://www.aplinkosauga.lt
  • Public Enterprise "Green Policy Institute"
phone: +370 5 213 1353
email: info AT zaliojipolitika.lt[10]
http://www.zaliojipolitika.lt

Media coverage


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