Spain's Aznar says EU should help Lithuania on nuke
Date: 07-Mar-02
Country: LITHUANIA
The issue is the country's biggest obstacle to joining the EU, whose fears over Ignalina stem from its two RBMK reactors modeled on Ukraine's disastrous Chernobyl plant, site of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986.
Aznar, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told a news conference while on a visit to Lithuania he agreed with the timeframe held by the EU to shut the second of Ignalina's two units by the end of 2009.
Lithuania has pledged to close the plant's first unit by 2005.
"I would invite Lithuania to really stick to these dates and I expect that the European Union would do its best to help Lithuania with the decommissioning," Aznar said.
Last week, Lithuanian President Valdas Admakus said the economic and social costs would make the shutdown of the plant by 2009 impossible and that the country should only consider closing it if Brussels picked up most of the clean-up costs.
The facility produces over 70 percent of the electrical power consumed in Lithuania, a country of 3.5 million people, and also supplies around 5,000 jobs.
International donors, largely from EU countries, have pledged more than 200 million euros ($173.8 million) to help Lithuania close the first unit.
It has also proposed 70 million euros per year in funding for the Ignalina shutdown between the years 2004 and 2006.
But Lithuanian officials say this is the tip of the iceberg and costs will continue to mount in the coming decades due to issues such as waste management, environmental consequences and social issues and could breach the one billion euro barrier before it is over.
The government is expected to discuss on Friday a parliament resolution pegging Ignalina's closure date to "long-term and substantial EU financial support", a government document said.