Lithuania Declines Proposal for Kalingrad Nuclear Plant
12 February 2010
Reuters
VILNIUS, Lithuania — Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has turned down a Russian proposal to join in building a new nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad enclave, an official said Thursday.
Russia said it wanted to build a nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. Lithuania is planning its own new nuclear plant.
"President Grybauskaite told the Russians bluntly that Lithuania is not interested in joining in building a nuclear power plant in Kaliningrad, because we are going to build our own plant," said Darius Semaska, foreign affairs advisor to President Dalia Grybauskaite.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the proposal when meeting Grybauskaite in Helsinki late Wednesday.
Last September, Russia approved a plan to invest 5 billion euros ($7.29 billion) in a 2.3 gigawatt nuclear power station in Kaliningrad by 2016 to 2018 in tandem with foreign companies, the first such joint project with foreigners in its history.
The project leader, Inter RAO, said Italian power firm Enel
was interested in joining the project and that Russia was talking to other potential partners.
Lithuania has also announced a search for a strategic investor to take more than 50 percent in a project company to build a new plant by 2018 to 2020.
The government said it had picked five companies to continue talks with but declined to identify them.
Vilnius also said the investor would have to meet the criteria of "Euro-Atlantic integration," suggesting that Russian companies may not be considered.
