Energy, Legislation, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

The approval means that the Visaginas NPP project can be further developed. 72 MPs voted for, 18 – against the project, while 32 abstained, writes LETA/ELTA.

The Visaginas NPP project's cost is LTL 17 billion (EUR 4.9 billion). Lithuania will contribute to the project by LTL 6 billion (EUR 1.7 billion). The construction of the plant is planned to start in 2015, and the plant is to be launched in 2020-2021.

It has been estimated that the plant's production costs will stand at LTL 0.07-0.1 (EUR 0.02-0.03) per kilowatt-hour, plus construction loan services which will cost LTL 0.1-0.15 (EUR 0.03-0.04) per kilowatt-hour. The loan is expected to be completely repaid until 2038-2040.

In December, Poland withdrew from the project, now the members of the project are Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia together with a strategic partner – the Japanese company Hitachi.

This week, the final voting on the Visaginas NPP concession agreement will take place at the Seimas.