Lithuanians Vote 'No' to Nuclear Power

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- The future of the long-running Visaginas nuclear power project in Lithuania has been dealt a severe blow when the public voted against nuclear power in a national referendum.

The vote last week resulted in almost two thirds of Lithuanians voting against nuclear power, with just over one third in favour. The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant last March is being blamed for the waning support for nuclear power in the country. However, the referendum was 'non-binding' which means that the new government could still go ahead with a nuclear project but, it will make getting the troubled Visaginas project off the ground much more difficult.

Lithuania, and its Baltic neighbours Latvia and Estonia, view the Visaginas project a vital project for reducing their heavy reliance on gas and electricity imports from Russia. This week, the parties making up the new coalition government refused to rule the project out completely.

Algirdas Butkevicius, head of the Social Democrat party which forms part of the new government, stated: "We are not anti-nuclear power. We are against this project which was given to parliament for discussion very late before the election. We are rational people. We will talk and will not make any hasty decisions."

The news will come as a disappointment to the energy companies involved in the long-troubled Visaginas nuclear revival project. The change of favour for the nuclear project coincides with a recent change of government. Last July, Lithuania's then parliament overwhelmingly voted in favour of building the Visaginas nuclear power plant. That endorsement opened 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). For additional information see July 4, 2012, article - Lithuania Green Lights Visaginas Nuclear Project.

A U.S.-Japanese consortium of Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy (Tokyo, Japan) and energy consortium Visaginas Atomic Energy (VAE) (Vilnius, Lithuania) was in place to carry out the work. VAE isa 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 Visaginas plant, which will be located in the northeast of the country, is expected to 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 higher than previously estimated. For additional information see May 16, 2012, article - Lithuania's Nuclear Bill Jumps by €2 Billion.

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