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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Estonia close to pulling the plug on nuclear power project

Estonian leaders seem to have made a principle decision that Estonia would distance itself from the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant project.

Postimees writes that both Prime Minister Andrus Ansip and Eesti Energia CEO Sandor Liive said on Friday that if Estonia decided to opt for nuclear power, the priority should be in building its own nuclear power plant.

This marks a new shift in thinking since it is the first time in the last two years when the government and Eesti Energia have been promoting the Ignalina project as the answer to Estonia’s energy problems.

“We are not ruling out participation in the Lithuania project, but if our long-term objective is to use nuclear power than we should prepare the construction of our own reactor. We cannot rely on the Lithuanian project,” said Liive.

Liive said that the Lithuanian project was derailed because of political disputes in Lithuania. Prime Minister Ansip added: “I don’t know whether the whole Baltic nuclear power plant project has come to an end now, but I am most dissatisfied about its development timetable.”

(Source: Baltic Business News)

1 comment:

Alexandra Prokopenko said...

Looks like the first sign of Lithuanian-Latvian-Estonian-Polish power plant project on the place of Ignalina that the EU authorities are about to close, starts to fall apart. Estonia is a country with a bit more then 1 million population, having almost no resources of its own, and not much nuclear expertize as well, ans surrounded by huge nuclear exporters. As it's often said, small but a VERY proud bird.