WWW.ENERGYTODAY.EU: Lithuanian PM calls Moscow’s energy plans PR campaign
Atnaujinta 2008-04-21
Date: April 21 2008
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas said on April 18 he is convinced that Russia’s plans to build a new nuclear power plant in the region was a public relations stunt.
The public relations campaign illustrates Russia’s dissatisfaction with the plans for a new nuclear power plant to be built in Lithuania, Baltic News Service (BNS) quoted Kirkilas as saying Kirkilas’ comments come two days after Sergei Kirienko announced that Russia would build a new five-billion-Euro nuclear power plant in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad by 2015. “We are ready to offer foreign partners, primarily European ones, up to 49 percent in the Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant,” Kiriyenko said. He added the power plant would be capable of producing 2300 MW, far exceeding what the enclave would need.
“If this strategic decision was really made by Russia, I think, that this is a serious checkmate for Lithuania. Such a little region certainly doesn’t need two nuclear power plants,” the news agency quoted Lithuanian political scientist Ceslovas Laurinavicius as saying.
Afraid of energy dependence on Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, have been wrestling over the future of their energy supplies in anticipation of electrical shortage when the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania shuts down in 2009 as demanded by the European Union.
The Baltics already have the electrical infrastructure with Russia in place, a remnant of the former Soviet Union system. Building new links is expensive and timeconsuming. Also years away is a replacement nuclear power plant for Ignalina, which the EU wants to shut down next year because it is deemed unsafe.
The public relations campaign illustrates Russia’s dissatisfaction with the plans for a new nuclear power plant to be built in Lithuania, Baltic News Service (BNS) quoted Kirkilas as saying Kirkilas’ comments come two days after Sergei Kirienko announced that Russia would build a new five-billion-Euro nuclear power plant in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad by 2015. “We are ready to offer foreign partners, primarily European ones, up to 49 percent in the Kaliningrad Nuclear Power Plant,” Kiriyenko said. He added the power plant would be capable of producing 2300 MW, far exceeding what the enclave would need.
“If this strategic decision was really made by Russia, I think, that this is a serious checkmate for Lithuania. Such a little region certainly doesn’t need two nuclear power plants,” the news agency quoted Lithuanian political scientist Ceslovas Laurinavicius as saying.
Afraid of energy dependence on Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, have been wrestling over the future of their energy supplies in anticipation of electrical shortage when the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania shuts down in 2009 as demanded by the European Union.
The Baltics already have the electrical infrastructure with Russia in place, a remnant of the former Soviet Union system. Building new links is expensive and timeconsuming. Also years away is a replacement nuclear power plant for Ignalina, which the EU wants to shut down next year because it is deemed unsafe.
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