A planned new nuclear reactor in Lithuania to serve all three Baltic states and Poland will not be ready for at least 16 years, dpa cited Latvia's prime minister as saying today. The Baltic states' sole nuclear power station near Ignalina in Lithuania, which provides power across the region, is due to shut down at the end of 2009. The new nuclear power plant, to serve Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland will not be ready until at least 2025, Latvian prime minister Valdis Dombrovskis said. "What we see is that this project is off schedule. Probably by the most optimistic forecasts we could have a new nuclear power plant in 2025," Dombrovskis told journalists. Closing the Ignalina Soviet-era plant was part of the terms under which Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004. Plans for the construction of a replacement reactor in partnership with Estonia, Latvia and Poland, have made painfully slow progress and speculation is increasing that one or more of the partners may pull out of the project. To address the energy shortfall in the intervening years, the Latvian government has plans to construct a coal-and-biomass-fuelled power station near the Latvian coastal city of Liepaja, Dombrovskis said. However, he dismissed local media reports suggesting Latvia could build its own nuclear power plant instead.
