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Poland mulls joining Lithuania nuke plant project: official
AFP
VILNIUS
Petroleumworld.com 06 14 06Poland is considering joining a project by the Baltic states to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, Polish Parliamentary Speaker Marek Jurek said Tuesday during a visit to Lithuania.
"Polish power grids are interested and willing to start cooperation with Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in this field," Jurek told Lithuanian lawmakers during a briefing in parliament.
"We would like to make a decision on this issue during the term of office of the current parliament and government," he said.
Jurek will lead a delegation of Polish officials on a visit to Ignalina on Wednesday, where he will meet with the head of the plant, Viktoras Sevaldinas.
The prime ministers of the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia gave their backing in February to the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania.
The new plant will replace the ageing Ignalina power station, which has two RBMK reactors, the type that exploded at Chernobyl in the then-Soviet Union in 1986, provoking the world's worst nuclear disaster.
One of the reactors at the Ignalina plant was halted on December 31, 2004 in line with commitments made by Lithuania to the European Union ahead of accession.
The three Baltic states joined the EU in May 2004.
Lithuania also pledged to the EU to close the plant completely in 2009.
A feasibility study aimed at evaluating the technological, environmental, legal and economic aspects of the project was launched in March by energy companies from the three Baltic states, and is expected to be completed by November this year.
"When the feasibility study has been completed and if it shows it is necessary to build a nuclear plant, talks could begin with the Poles," said Aurelija Trakseliene, presse attachee for Lithuania's power company, Lietuvos Energija.
Last month, the head of Poland's Atomic Energy Agency, Jerzy Niewodniczanski, said in an interview with Poland's Zycie Warszawy newspaper that "it would be ideal" if Poland became involved in the project in Lithuania.
"The Lithuanians, together with Latvia and Estonia, want to develop the existing site (of a nuclear power plant), and they have thought about us" as a potential partner in the project, Niewodniczanski said.
"Being a co-owner of the site would not only give us access to electricity but also to the ideal place for gaining experience and training personnel for a future site in Poland," he said.
The Polish government adopted a strategic energy policy paper in January last year, in which it called for a nuclear power station to be built in Poland after 2020.
AFP 13 1226 GMT 06 06
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