RIGA — President Dalia Grybauskaitė rejected an offer from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to participate in the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Kaliningrad region.

While in Helsinki for the Baltic Sea states summit, Grybauskaitė told the BNS agency that Putin has invited Lithuania to take part in the €3.6 billion plant project, which will be located just 12 kilometers from the Lithuanian border, but she said she refused the offer.

“Yes, he invited us, and tried to convince me that [private_supervisor]the atomic station in Kaliningrad is important, that it is unavoidable, and it would be profitable for Lithuania to participate in it,” she said.

“I clearly laid out that Lithuania will build its own, and that we’re not planning to take part in the construction of the [Kaliningrad] station,” she added.

The rejection is a major setback for Russia, which is planning to begin groundwork on the nuclear plant at the end of this month. Rosatom, the state-owned atomic corporation, intends to build two reactors with total output of 2,300 megawatts. But the capacities, which won’t come online until 2016-2018, will be completely superfluous for Kaliningrad’s needs, and are solely for export.

However, without Lithuania’s cooperation and to a large extent Poland’s as well, there will be nowhere for Rosatom to export the energy — barring, of course, an undersea cable that would deliver kilowatts to Scandinavia. And without a market for the output, Rosatom will find it difficult to find banks that will finance the project. This is one reason why Russia is inviting foreign investors to acquire an ownership stake in the Kaliningrad plant — an unprecedented development in the country’s nuclear industry, where all nuclear plants are wholly state-owned.

Still, it is way too early to declare the Kaliningrad nuke project dead. The Russians can begin building their plant earlier than the Lithuanians, and this could sway foreign investors — whom Vilnius is also trying to woo for its new plant in Visaginas — toward Kaliningrad.

“If the Russians start building the Baltic nuclear power plant earlier, then banks will no longer see Ignalina [Lithuania’s planned nuclear plant in Visaginas – ed.], planned into the same region, as a sensible investment,” Kalev Kallo, an Estonian lawmaker, told the Eesti Pahvaleht earlier this week.

Estonia, like Latvia and Poland, have been invited to invest in the new Lithuanian plant whose parameters are still unclear but could have an output capacity of up to 3,400 megawatts. However, construction, even in the best case scenario, will not begin for at least two more years, meaning that the first reactor will not come online until 2018 at the earliest — and more likely 2020.

Lithuania originally wanted to build the plant with the LEO LT joint-stock company, but the project faltered when LEO LT was declared unconstitutionally founded. The company was later dismantled.

Now Vilnius hopes to attract a strategic Western investor who will own a majority stake in the project. Given the sizable market for the plant’s output — the three Baltic states and possibly Poland — the project has the potential to attract investor interest.

[/private_supervisor] [private_subscription 1 month]the atomic station in Kaliningrad is important, that it is unavoidable, and it would be profitable for Lithuania to participate in it,” she said.

“I clearly laid out that Lithuania will build its own, and that we’re not planning to take part in the construction of the [Kaliningrad] station,” she added.

The rejection is a major setback for Russia, which is planning to begin groundwork on the nuclear plant at the end of this month. Rosatom, the state-owned atomic corporation, intends to build two reactors with total output of 2,300 megawatts. But the capacities, which won’t come online until 2016-2018, will be completely superfluous for Kaliningrad’s needs, and are solely for export.

However, without Lithuania’s cooperation and to a large extent Poland’s as well, there will be nowhere for Rosatom to export the energy — barring, of course, an undersea cable that would deliver kilowatts to Scandinavia. And without a market for the output, Rosatom will find it difficult to find banks that will finance the project. This is one reason why Russia is inviting foreign investors to acquire an ownership stake in the Kaliningrad plant — an unprecedented development in the country’s nuclear industry, where all nuclear plants are wholly state-owned.

Still, it is way too early to declare the Kaliningrad nuke project dead. The Russians can begin building their plant earlier than the Lithuanians, and this could sway foreign investors — whom Vilnius is also trying to woo for its new plant in Visaginas — toward Kaliningrad.

“If the Russians start building the Baltic nuclear power plant earlier, then banks will no longer see Ignalina [Lithuania’s planned nuclear plant in Visaginas – ed.], planned into the same region, as a sensible investment,” Kalev Kallo, an Estonian lawmaker, told the Eesti Pahvaleht earlier this week.

Estonia, like Latvia and Poland, have been invited to invest in the new Lithuanian plant whose parameters are still unclear but could have an output capacity of up to 3,400 megawatts. However, construction, even in the best case scenario, will not begin for at least two more years, meaning that the first reactor will not come online until 2018 at the earliest — and more likely 2020.

Lithuania originally wanted to build the plant with the LEO LT joint-stock company, but the project faltered when LEO LT was declared unconstitutionally founded. The company was later dismantled.

Now Vilnius hopes to attract a strategic Western investor who will own a majority stake in the project. Given the sizable market for the plant’s output — the three Baltic states and possibly Poland — the project has the potential to attract investor interest. [/private_subscription 1 month] [private_subscription 4 months]the atomic station in Kaliningrad is important, that it is unavoidable, and it would be profitable for Lithuania to participate in it,” she said.

“I clearly laid out that Lithuania will build its own, and that we’re not planning to take part in the construction of the [Kaliningrad] station,” she added.

The rejection is a major setback for Russia, which is planning to begin groundwork on the nuclear plant at the end of this month. Rosatom, the state-owned atomic corporation, intends to build two reactors with total output of 2,300 megawatts. But the capacities, which won’t come online until 2016-2018, will be completely superfluous for Kaliningrad’s needs, and are solely for export.

However, without Lithuania’s cooperation and to a large extent Poland’s as well, there will be nowhere for Rosatom to export the energy — barring, of course, an undersea cable that would deliver kilowatts to Scandinavia. And without a market for the output, Rosatom will find it difficult to find banks that will finance the project. This is one reason why Russia is inviting foreign investors to acquire an ownership stake in the Kaliningrad plant — an unprecedented development in the country’s nuclear industry, where all nuclear plants are wholly state-owned.

Still, it is way too early to declare the Kaliningrad nuke project dead. The Russians can begin building their plant earlier than the Lithuanians, and this could sway foreign investors — whom Vilnius is also trying to woo for its new plant in Visaginas — toward Kaliningrad.

“If the Russians start building the Baltic nuclear power plant earlier, then banks will no longer see Ignalina [Lithuania’s planned nuclear plant in Visaginas – ed.], planned into the same region, as a sensible investment,” Kalev Kallo, an Estonian lawmaker, told the Eesti Pahvaleht earlier this week.

Estonia, like Latvia and Poland, have been invited to invest in the new Lithuanian plant whose parameters are still unclear but could have an output capacity of up to 3,400 megawatts. However, construction, even in the best case scenario, will not begin for at least two more years, meaning that the first reactor will not come online until 2018 at the earliest — and more likely 2020.

Lithuania originally wanted to build the plant with the LEO LT joint-stock company, but the project faltered when LEO LT was declared unconstitutionally founded. The company was later dismantled.

Now Vilnius hopes to attract a strategic Western investor who will own a majority stake in the project. Given the sizable market for the plant’s output — the three Baltic states and possibly Poland — the project has the potential to attract investor interest. [/private_subscription 4 months] [private_subscription 1 year]the atomic station in Kaliningrad is important, that it is unavoidable, and it would be profitable for Lithuania to participate in it,” she said.

“I clearly laid out that Lithuania will build its own, and that we’re not planning to take part in the construction of the [Kaliningrad] station,” she added.

The rejection is a major setback for Russia, which is planning to begin groundwork on the nuclear plant at the end of this month. Rosatom, the state-owned atomic corporation, intends to build two reactors with total output of 2,300 megawatts. But the capacities, which won’t come online until 2016-2018, will be completely superfluous for Kaliningrad’s needs, and are solely for export.

However, without Lithuania’s cooperation and to a large extent Poland’s as well, there will be nowhere for Rosatom to export the energy — barring, of course, an undersea cable that would deliver kilowatts to Scandinavia. And without a market for the output, Rosatom will find it difficult to find banks that will finance the project. This is one reason why Russia is inviting foreign investors to acquire an ownership stake in the Kaliningrad plant — an unprecedented development in the country’s nuclear industry, where all nuclear plants are wholly state-owned.

Still, it is way too early to declare the Kaliningrad nuke project dead. The Russians can begin building their plant earlier than the Lithuanians, and this could sway foreign investors — whom Vilnius is also trying to woo for its new plant in Visaginas — toward Kaliningrad.

“If the Russians start building the Baltic nuclear power plant earlier, then banks will no longer see Ignalina [Lithuania’s planned nuclear plant in Visaginas – ed.], planned into the same region, as a sensible investment,” Kalev Kallo, an Estonian lawmaker, told the Eesti Pahvaleht earlier this week.

Estonia, like Latvia and Poland, have been invited to invest in the new Lithuanian plant whose parameters are still unclear but could have an output capacity of up to 3,400 megawatts. However, construction, even in the best case scenario, will not begin for at least two more years, meaning that the first reactor will not come online until 2018 at the earliest — and more likely 2020.

Lithuania originally wanted to build the plant with the LEO LT joint-stock company, but the project faltered when LEO LT was declared unconstitutionally founded. The company was later dismantled.

Now Vilnius hopes to attract a strategic Western investor who will own a majority stake in the project. Given the sizable market for the plant’s output — the three Baltic states and possibly Poland — the project has the potential to attract investor interest. [/private_subscription 1 year]

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