Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant

The Soviet Union intended Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant as a symbol of its technological progress. Preparations for the construction began in 1974. Field work began three years later. Unit 1 came online in December 1983, and was closed on December 31, 2004. Unit 2 came online in August 1987 and was closed on December 31, 2009 at 23:00 EET (21:00 UTC).

Originally, Unit 2 was scheduled for launch in 1986, but its commissioning was postponed for a year because of the Chernobyl disaster that year. The construction of Unit 3 started in 1985, but was suspended in 1988 and subsequently cancelled, and its demolition began in 1989. Its dismantling was completed in 2008.

The town of Visaginas was built to accommodate Ignalina's workers. About 5,000 people worked at the plant, which produced 70% of the Lithuanian S.S.R's electricity and exported power to elsewhere in the Soviet Union. At the time, the settlements at Visaginas were no more than villages, making it a prominent example of "greenfield investment", a situation when a large town or industrial facility is built in an area with little existing infrastructure. Ignalina was sited next to the largest lake in Lithuania, Lake Drūkšiai (part of which lies in neighbouring Belarus), which provided the plant's cooling water. The temperature of the lake has risen by about 3 °C (5.4 °F) during the operations of I.N.P.P., causing eutrophication. Ignalina's discharges of radionuclides and heavy metals have accumulated in lake waters and sediments. Its spent fuel was placed in CASTOR and CONSTOR storage casks during the 2000s.

In 2005, the State Security Department of Lithuania investigated the activities of Vladimir Alganov, who in 1997 had been expelled from Poland for espionage, and learned that he had met with the management of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and at their request obtained a long-term Lithuanian visa in 2002.

There was discussion during the 1990s and 2000s of building a new nuclear power plant at the same site, forestalling the likelihood of an upcoming power shortage in the region. On February 27, 2006, at a meeting in Trakai, the Prime Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia signed a communiqué which invited state-owned energy companies in the three countries to invest in the design and construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. On June 28, 2007, Lithuania's parliament adopted a law on building a new nuclear power plant, the formal start of the project. On July 30, 2008, the power companies of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland agreed to set up the Visaginas Nuclear Plant Company, which would have been responsible for the construction of the new power plant with a capacity of 3,000–3,200 MW. GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy (then GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy) was selected as a strategic investor in the project.

Eventually the project was stopped as the 2012 Lithuanian nuclear power referendum results did not provide a mandate for the government to continue.

Incidents

In December 1983, when Ignalina Unit 1 came online, a design flaw of the RBMK was noticed for the first time. When the graphite-displacer tips on its control rods were inserted into the reactor, they immediately caused a power excursion. Unit 1's control rods did not get stuck; they reached the bottom of the reactor, and the boron in the control rods stopped the nuclear reaction. Other nuclear organizations and RBMK plants were informed of the problem, but it was not addressed until after a similar power surge partly caused the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster. The subsequent modifications were tested at Ignalina during 1987 and 1988.

According to an Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant press release, on June 6, 2009, at 09:15 EEST (06:15 UTC), the automatic reactor protection system was actuated and Unit 2 was shut down. No radiation was released. Plant officials decided to keep it off-line for thirty days, performing the annual preventive maintenance in June, instead of August 29–September 27 as originally scheduled.

Controversies

On 18 May 2010, Lithuanian energy minister Arvydas Sekmokas announced that although 60% of the funds have been spent, no single project has been completed. As of 2011, phase 1 of decommissioning is three to four years behind schedule. According to Osvaldas Čiukšys, the former CEO of the Ignalina plant, Nukem Technologies is going to request an additional €100 million for completing the nuclear waste storage facility. This was opposed by the former vice minister of energy and chairman of the board of Ignalina plant Romas Švedas, who unexpectedly resigned on 6 September 2011.

There is a dispute between the Government of Lithuania and the EBRD about the administration of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund. There is also a dispute between the Lithuanian authorities and Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service over the safety of radioactive waste transportation and storage casks.

The project faces a financing gap of €1.5 billion for the second phase of construction after 2014.