The President shall not divulge how she would suggested people to vote in an autumn’s advisory referendum about the new nuclear power plant (NPP) constructions, but urges the Government to “finally” provide the residents of the country with the full information about this project writes delfi.lt
“First of all I would like to canvass the government to finally give an explanation to people, to give full information about the project, in all government web sites, starting with the Government and ending with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Energetic, put the answers to all obscure questions. And only when people will know everything, they will have to make a decision themselves” – on Wednesday said D. Grybauskaitė, when asked how she would canvass to vote in the forthcoming referendum.
On Monday, 16 July, the Parliament has decided that on the 14th of October in 2012, together with the parliamentary elections, the consultative (advisory) referendum about the constructions of the NPP will be held.
In the referendum, the residents will be represented with a single statement: “I support the constructions of a new nuclear power plant in the Republic of Lithuania”, and people will have to choose one of two responses: “yes” or “no”.
The Parliament has approved the constructions of the power-station, but the final investment decisions will only be taken until the end of 2015.
Lithuania, together with Latvia, Estonia and Japan’s company “Hitachi”, expects to build new nuclear power station in Visaginas till 2020, next to the Ignalina NPP, in which the second of the two reactors was shut down in late 2009. The government plans that the constructions of the new power-plant will begin in 2014 and in 2020 it could start to produce electricity.
“Hitachi” should managed 20 percent of the future company’s common shares, Lithuania – 38 percent, Latvia – 20 percent and Estonia – 22 percent. If Poland would join the NPP project, the share exchange ratio would slightly change.
Experts and critics of the project points that it is yet not clear how much would the electricity produced by the new power-plant would cost to the users.
Translated by Monika Mikučionytė
