Work to shut Lithuania nuke delayed, soon on track

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Work to shut Lithuania nuke delayed, soon on track

VISAGINAS, Lithuania (Reuters) - Work to close Lithuania's Chernobyl-
type atomic plant has been delayed but is expected to get back on 
track with a meeting of contributors to the project in January, 
officials said Friday. 

Lithuania agreed last year that by 2005 it would decommission one of 
Ignalina's two reactors. Ignalina houses the largest Chernobyl-type 
RBMK reactors still operating and a decision on the second reactor is 
expected in 2004. 

Lithuania made the pledge to close Unit One on the condition that the 
international community would help finance the shutdown since 
Ignalina was built during the 1980s when the country was still 
occupied by the Soviet Union. 

In June, Vilnius hosted an international donors conference that 
raised about $200 million in pledges for the closure. The European 
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is administering the 
fund of contributions. 

An official with the bank said there had been minor delays and that 
the Lithuanian general election in October had also caused a setback 
of about two months. 

Now the new government needs to approve some legislation linked to 
the decommissioning and then an assembly of donors can meet for 
approval of project proposals. 

"But we think that we have our act together for January.... There is 
no substantial problem," Joachim Jahnke, EBRD vice president for 
nuclear safety, told Reuters. 

"It's not that we delayed artificially here but at one time you can't 
just continue while there is an election and a new government is 
building up." 

Ignalina General Director Viktor Shevaldin told Reuters the plant 
itself was ready to start decommissioning projects. 

"The power plant has already done the preparatory work," Shevaldin 
said. 

"If we had the financing we would start already earlier the work and 
activities on decommissioning," he said. 

The technical closure of Ignalina is expected to cost about $200 
million to 2005 and another $70 million for the five years after 
that. 

After years of talks between Ukraine and Western countries, Chernobyl 
was permanently shut Friday. 

Chernobyl's 1986 explosion, which killed 30 firemen and has been 
blamed for thousands of deaths, as well as increases in thyroid 
cancer, raised fears about the safety of its dozen or so sister 
reactors throughout the former Soviet Union. 

Environmentalists Greenpeace has renewed calls to have the remaining 
Chernobyl-type plants closed. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
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