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Lithuanian PM assures EU will close nuke reactor



Lithuanian PM assures EU will close nuke reactor
  
VILNIUS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Lithuanian Prime Minister Rolandas Paksas 
on Thursday assured European Commissioner Gunter Verheugen his 
country will stick to its pledge to shut down the first reactor of 
the Ignalinanuclear power plant in 2005. 

"The Prime Minister said Lithuania will carry out all its obligations 
regarding the Ignalina nuclear power plant and all agreements will be 
executed," the government's press office said in a statement. 

Before Paksas left for Brussels on Wednesday, his cabinet approved a 
step-by-step plan detailing the first reactor's decommissioning. 

The first stage involves preparatory work through January 1, 2005 
followed by preparations for the dismantling of the reactor and its 
facilities for long-term storage going until 2010. 

The dismantling of the block and the reactor's facilities and 
premises is seen starting in 2011 and running through 2030-2080. 

Decommissioning of the plant is one of the key conditions of the 
country's integration into the EU, which Lithuania wants to join in 
2004. 

The EU and Lithuania's Nordic neighbours see Ignalina as unsafe since 
it was built to the same design as Ukraine's Chernobyl, the site of 
the world's worst civilian nuclear accident in 1986. 

The government had said it will make a decision on the fate of 
Ignalina's second reactor in 2004. 

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