BNS: Lithuania's Ignalina N-plant dismantles unfinished 3rd reactor building
Updated 2008-09-16
VILNIUS, Sept 15, BNS - Lithuania's Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) has completed the dismantling of unfinished third reactor building and remediation of contaminated soil around the unit, which has never been launched.
The site of the third unit has been indicated as one of two alternative locations for new nuclear facility in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of new nuclear power plant. The dismantling of the building, land recultivation and other works cost 45 million litas (EUR 13 mln) to INPP, Henrikas Lobacevskis, chief engineer of INPP Decommissioning Service, told BNS.
The building was to be dismantled by the end of 2006, but the project took longer than expected to implement due to increased scale of some works. The value of the project, which lasted four years, doubled as a result of increased work costs and volumes, Lobacevskis explained.
The building was demolished till the depth of 1 meter under the surface; its foundation going as deep as 12 meters and the 2-meter thick reinforced concrete bed were backfilled. The whole 47-hectare territory, where the third and the fourth units were to be built, was levelled off and cleared up. "The territory looks like a lawn but without grass. Why should we spend money on that if a new nuclear power plant will be built here in several years' time," Lobacevskis said.
The construction of the third unit of INPP, which was about 40 percent complete then, was halted in 1988 after the Chernobyl disaster back in 1986 and ensuing protests by the environmentalists.
The first of two units of INPP, which are considered unsafe by the West, was closed on Dec. 31, 2004. The second unit shall be shut down late in 2009.
Lithuania seeks to build the first unit of new nuclear facility by
2016-2018 in cooperation with Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
Lithuania seeks to build the first unit of new nuclear facility by
2016-2018 in cooperation with Latvia, Estonia and Poland.
