Brussels, 02/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The initialling by Lithuania and the Japanese energy company Hitachi of an agreement to build a nuclear power station in Visaginas has put the Baltic regional project on the right tracks.
On Friday 30 March, the Lithuanian government and the Japanese group Hitachi initialled an agreement on the construction of a nuclear power station in Lithuania, the Lithuanian prime minister, Andrius Kubilius, has announced.
A preliminary agreement to the construction of this facility in Visaginas, in the north-east of Lithuania, was signed in December of last year. The definitive agreement is set to be signed in June, once the Lithuanian Parliament has given its green light. “This is an important stage in the development of this regional project”, stressed Kubilius. Lithuania's two neighbours in the Baltic, Estonia and Latvia, are also involved in the project.
The future power station, on which building is due to begin in 2015, is likely to be operational in 2020-2022. With a capacity of 1300 MW, it represents an investment of €5 billion. The Visaginas power station will take over from Lithuania's only nuclear power station, in Ignalina, which, as it is of the same type as the one which exploded in Chernobyl in 1986, was closed in 2009 after 26 years of operations. (EH/transl.fl)