Lithuania Green Lights Visaginas Nuclear Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Lithuania's parliament has overwhelmingly voted in favour of building the Visaginas nuclear power plant.

The positive vote clears the way for the formation of a final project development company to oversee the build and to sign an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with nuclear engineering company, Hitachi Ltd (Tokyo, Japan). The work wil be carried out by U.S.-Japanese consortium Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy (Tokyo, Japan) and energy consortium Visaginas Atomic Energy (VAE) (Vilnius, Lithuania), which is a joint effort between power companies from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

The companies signed a Concession Agreement in April. For additional information see April 4, 2012, article - Lithuania Advances Visaginas Nuclear Project.

The plant is significant for the Baltic region, as they attempt to reduce their heavy reliance on Russian gas and electricity imports.

"The passage of the laws creates an opportunity for commercial investors -- the regional partners and the approved strategic investor Hitachi -- to conclude discussions on the establishment of the project development company and signing the agreements on the conditions approved by the Parliament," stated the Lithuanian Energy Ministry in a statement.

The Visaginas plant, which will be located in the northeast of the country, will have a generating capacity of 1,300-megawatts (MW) and will cost an estimated €4.8 billion ($6.5 billion). In May the government revealed that the bill for the Visaginas build would be €2 billion more than previously estimated. For additional information see May 16, 2012, article - Lithuania's Nuclear Bill Jumps by €2 Billion.

The plant will be located on the site of the old, Ignalina nuclear power plant which was shut down in 2009 as part of Lithuania's conditions for entering the European Union (E.U.). Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy is proposing its 1,300 MW Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design. There is potential for the plant to be expanded to 3,400 MW, in the future.

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