Estonia has made no decisions concerning Ignalina power plant -- minister

19.03.2008

Paet said in the parliament's information hour on Wednesday that there was an opportunity in Lithuania's accession agreement to the European Union for the relaunching of the second reactor of Ignalina in case there should be serious power failures in Lithuania.

He added that a thorough analysis of all the circumstances and of the situation created was necessary to assess the justification of the postponement of the closure or of relaunching.

The minister said that until there was no such analysis it was not possible to say whether that application was justified.

Paet summed up his words by saying that if Lithuania wanted to continue work of the second reactor it would have to come to an agreement with the European Union, but that presumed an analysis which they did not have at the moment.

But he added that Estonia's first preference in this context was that preparation and construction of the new reactor should proceed as fast as possible.

Paet pointed out that if the use of the existing reactor was extended it could indefinitely postpone building of a new reactor. He said this was an important problem.

But he added that if the old reactor was closed and there was no new reactor yet, Lithuania would have to ensure its energy supply by means of raw materials based on gas and oil. This could lead to a hike in the electricity price.

At the beginning of March Estonian Ambassador in Vilnius Andres Tropp was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in order to learn the Estonian positions concerning extension of the time of service of the second Ignalina reactor.

Lithuania was irritated by a statement to BNS by Einari Kisel, the present deputy general secretary for energy of the Estonian Ministry for Economic Affairs, who said that Estonia was not in favor of extending the term of operation of the power plant.

Kisel said Lithuania had enough power plants even after Ignalina wound up its operations. The question is that other Lithuanian power plants are mainly fueled by natural gas and as a result there could be a significant rise in the electricity price.

"But we cannot say that problems with electric supply will then be created in Lithuania," Kisel said.

Kisel also said that if the Ignalina power plant was closed Lithuania would certainly start taking faster action building a new nuclear power plant.

"There is currently the tragicomical situation where Lithuanians are attempting to keep the present nuclear power plant in operation and as a result no one is dealing with the new plant," he said.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8861, sise@bns.ee