A project to build a new nuclear plant in Lithuania to replace the Chernobyl-type Ignalina plant would cost 2.5-4.0 euros (3.15-5.0 billion dollars), a feasibility study published Wednesday showed. "The new plant could start operations in 2015," Rimantas Juozaitis, head of Lithuania's state-owned energy company Lietuvos Energija, which conducted the feasibility study with its counterparts in Latvia and Estonia, told reporters in Vilnius.
Juozaitis together with the heads of the Latvian and Estonian energy companies on Tuesday approved the findings of the feasibility study.
"The project is attractive financially – the new nuclear plant would allow us to produce electricity at a lower cost than in traditional power stations. It also would allow us to increase our independence form energy resources in other countries," Juozaitis said.
Lithuania and its Baltic neighbours are heavily dependent on supplies of oil and gas from Russia, which has been steadily increasing the prices of its fuel.
Dependence on energy from the east is set to increase even more in 2009 when Lithuania will close its Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear plant, which the European Union considers unsafe.
Lithuania shut down one of two reactors at Ignalina in 2004 and has pledged to the EU to close the plant completely in 2009.
The new nuclear plant could be built using Ignalina's infrastructure.
German energy giant E.ON has already expressed interest in the project to build the nuclear plant, while France's Areva group, Canada's AECL, and Mitsubishi of Japan have said they are ready to supply nuclear technologies for the new facility.
The feasibility study will be submitted to the government for study, Juozaitis said.
Source: Agence France-Presse
