By Stefan Wagstyl in Vilnius, Robert Anderson in Stockholm and Jan Cienski in Warsaw
The Baltic states and Poland are struggling to settle the political, commercial and environmental problems involved in their joint plan for a €7bn nuclear power station, aimed at easing expected regional electricity shortages and reducing dependence on Russian energy.
By Katya Andrusz
Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Polish government, which took power two months ago, is pulling back from its predecessor's plans to build a nuclear reactor by 2025 and may not take part in a project to build an atomic plant in Lithuania, the Wall Street Journal Polska reported.
The Lithuanian government plans to hold a 61.7% stake in the national investment company being set up to handle financing of a new Ignalina plant, the government said in a statement December 20.
Copyright 2007 Baltic News Service
Five Lithuania's commercial banks will extend a 81.46 million euros (LTL 281.3 mln) syndicated loan to Lithuania's state-controlled Lietuvos Elektrine (Lithuanian Power Plant).
On Dec. 12 the company and the consortium of Hansabankas, SEB Vilniaus Bankas, DnB Nord, Sampo and Nordea Bank Finland signed a loan agreement on the financing of 400 MW gas unit construction, the power plant said in a statement to the Vilnius Stock Exchange (VSE). Another bidder in the 15-year loan tender, which the power plant announced in August, included Nordic Investment Bank.
Vilnius, Dec 10 (ELTA) - State institutions and courts might soon receive a request to amend or recognize the law on the Ignalina
Nuclear Power Plant as illegal. The winners of the Constitution exam who now make up the Citizens' Council on Constitutionality think that a decision to build a nuclear power plant and the principles of formation of the national investor are in conflict with the
Constitution.
The thaw between Poland and Brussels has sent a chill down spines in Lithuania.
Donald Tusk, the new Polish premier, arrived at the European Commission and parliament on Tuesday to show that his country was back in the centre of Europe. The era of the Kaczynskis, “the terrible twins”, picking fights with Brussels, was over.
The fear in Vilnius is that he may stop picking fights with Russia, too, leaving the Baltic republics, which only recently threw off the Soviet yoke, alone in the ring with the bear. Talks on resolving the Russian blockade of Polish meat, which in turn have held up a new EU-Russia partnership agreement to Brussels' ill-concealed annoyance, start next week.
BRUSSELS (AFX News) - EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs said there will be sufficient power in Lithuania when its Ingalina nuclear power station's second unit is shut down at the end of 2009.
'At the end of 2009 (when the plant closes), the power gap will not cut Lithuanian consumers' power,' the commissioner told reporters here.
VISAGINAS, Lithuania, Nov 29 (Reuters) - A planned new Lithuanian nuclear plant faces a delay of at least two years to 2017, the head of the country's current sole atomic power facility said on Thursday. Viktor Shevaldin, head of the Ignalina nuclear plant, due to be shut down at the end of 2009 under Lithuania's European Union entry terms, said several uncertainties remained about the planning and eventual construction of a new plant.
Stockholm (Platts)--16Nov2007
A plan for preparing an environmental impact assessment for a new Ignalina nuclear plant has been approved by the Lithuanian Environment Ministry, national utility Lietuvos Energija said in a statement November 15.
The 255-page plan was developed by Finnish consulting company Poeyry Energy and the Lithuania Energy Institute. The assessment, for a plant with up to 3,400 MW of installed capacity, is expected to take 21 months.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (Thomson Financial) - Lithuania's Soviet-era Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) said its number two unit was shut down yesterday at 5.20 pm after a technical problem triggered the automatic protection system.
The plant, which uses the same reactors as Ukraine's Chernobyl plant, will remain offline for at least three days.
