Baltic politicians to pick up discussions on nuclear power plant, Lithuanian parliament speaker says

“On a company level, discussions with Estonia and Latvia continued all the time. Now that discussion should move to a political level since, as far as technical things are concerned, everything has been considered and now we will open political discussions with Latvia and Estonia. Today, with Latvia’s parliamentary speaker coming on a visit, we will talk about energy as well,” Loreta Graužinienė told the Laisvoji Banga radio on Friday.

She reiterated that Lithuania was not able to build the nuclear facility on its own.

“If we did that together with Latvia and Estonia or with some other partner, that project would definitely be cost-effective, based on the latest calculations and estimates. The Energy Minister has notified that an additional study is being carried out now in order to assess additional questions,” Graužinienė said.

She added, however, that the authorities would once again have to ask the public to express its opinion about the project – either in a referendum or some other form.

Lithuanian voters did not back the project in a non-binding referendum in October 2012.

Dalius Misiūnas, CEO of energy group Lietuvos Energija (Lithuanian Energy) has said that decisions on the new nuclear facility should be made around 2018.

The government still has to decide whether or not to build a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. Sources report that the issue is being discussed with project partners, Latvia, Estonia and Japan’s Hitachi.

The Energy Ministry and Hitachi late in July signed a memorandum of understanding for joint actions to establish an interim VAE project company and invited Latvia and Estonia to join in.