[cdn-nucl-l] LITHUANIA Ignalina 1 shutdown

["Jerry Cuttler" <jerrycuttler@rogers.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Gene
To: mbrexchange@list.ans.org
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2005 5:26 PM
Subject: [MbrExchange] EnLG 2005jan2 LITHUANIA Ignalina 1 shutdown

Shutdown at nuclear plant

Australia SUNDAY TIMES 02jan05

VILNIUS: Keeping a promise it made to the European Union, Lithuania began
shutting down one of the reactors at its only nuclear power plant yesterday.

Under its entry deal with the EU, Lithuania had to close Unit 1 of the
Ignalina nuclear power plant before 2005 and Unit 2 by the end of 2009.

The plant, 130km northeast of the capital Vilnius, is the Baltic state's
only nuclear plant and is similar in design to the Chernobyl reactor in the
Ukraine, site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

"That disaster cast a shadow over our plant, too. We knew long ago the first
unit would be closed and we prepared for it," said Viktoras Sevaldinas, the
plant's director.

"Only after five years we will be able to remove nuclear fuel containers
from the first unit. Later, we will start to dismantle the reactor. The
complete process could take as long as 30 years," he said.

Both reactors had safety upgrades after Lithuania regained its independence
from the Soviet Union in 1991.