Lithuania Picks Hitachi-GE For Nuclear Contract

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Lithuania has kick-started its nuclear programme by choosing U.S.-Japanese consortium Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy (Hitachi, Japan) as its strategic partner to build a new nuclear power plant by 2020.

Hitachi-GE has beaten rival Westinghouse Electric Company LLC (Monroeville, Pennsylvania) to the deal. Last month, it was revealed that both companies had submitted separate bids for the contract. For additional information, see June 6, 2011 article - Lithuania's Nuclear Hopes Revived.

The new nuclear plant will be built at Visaginas in the northeast of the country and will have a potential generating capacity of up to 3,400 megawatts (MW) eventually, but to start, a 1,300-MW plant based on Hitachi-GE's Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) will be constructed. It will replace Lithuania's only nuclear power plant, Ignalina, which is located nearby but was shut down in 2009 as part of the country's conditions for entering the European Union (E.U.). Before that, it was responsible for supplying almost 70% of the country's electricity.

"The Energy Ministry along with Hitachi aim to sign the concessional agreement by the end of the year and to commission the Visaginas nuclear power plant by late 2020," explained Lithuania's Deputy Energy Minister, Romas Svedas. "Hitachi has agreed to commence significant preparatory work from this moment onwards."

Lithuania is planning to build the plant with the help of regional partners, Latvia, Estonia and Poland. Hitachi is expected to invest in the project and according to Svedas, "it will be decided now what stake each of the five partners will have in the project." The partners are determined to use Visaginas to help reduce their reliance on Russian energy imports.

Lithuania's decision to go ahead with Visaginas has been questioned in light of the disaster at the Japanese nuclear power plant at Fukushima in March. Speaking last week, the country's prime minister, Andrius Kubilius, argued: "The technology is very advanced and cannot be compared to any previous reactors."

"Hitachi and Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd. (Hitachi-GE) proposed as part of the Strategic Investor role to provide investment into the Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant as well as to provide an Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) - the only generation III nuclear reactor with a proven operational track record around the world - to the Lithuanian government," a statement from Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy read. "The proposed ABWR has an enhanced level of safety, drawing on experiences from the Great East Japan Earthquake. For instance, it has an alternative power supply and incorporates countermeasures to restore cooling functions as necessary."

Lithuania's nuclear programme looked set to restart last year with South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corporation (NYSE:KEP) (KEPCO) (Seoul, South Korea), but the company mysteriously pulled out of the tender process in December.

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