Brussels, 13/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - Lithuania, which has made a commitment to the EU to close down its Chernobyl-type Ignalina nuclear power station by 2009, and which closed down one of the two reactors on 31 December last year for safety reasons, hopes to "keep its status as a country with nuclear power facilities, but cannot afford a new reactor", Prime Minister Alguirdas Brazauskas announced on Tuesday. The Prime Minister plans to appeal for international aid to build a new power station. "It is likely to cost around 2 billion EUR, which is more than we can afford and we will have to look into the issue and take advice", Brazauskas added at the end of a meeting of the Lithuanian government on energy. Lithuania hopes to ask advice from energy companies and EU experts to look into the construction of a modern reactor and help to finance the project. The Ignalina power station, whose first reactor was opened in December 1983 and the second in August 1987, supplies over 70% of all electricity consumed in Lithuania.