Lithuania's nuclear plant sees profits surge by 43.7 percent

WAR.WIRE

Lithuania's nuclear plant sees profits surge by 43.7 percent
VILNIUS (AFP) Feb 14, 2005
Lithuania's Ignalina nuclear power plant, which last year shut down one of its two Chernobyl-type reactors, earned 22.558 million litas (6.5 million euros, 8.4 million dollars) in pretax profit in 2004, a 43.7-percent surge compared to the previous year, the company said Monday.

Turnover at the plant last year contracted by 9.4 percent to 724 million litas.

The first of two reactors at Ignalina was halted on December 31 in line with a pledge made by Lithuania during European Union membership talks. The Baltic state joined the EU in May last year.

The deal with the EU provided that the nuclear facility be entirely closed in 2009.

The Ignalina plant, which supplied more than 70 percent of all energy consumed in the Baltic state, operated two RBMK reactors -- the same type as those used at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear plant, which exploded in 1986 in the world's worst civil nuclear disaster.

Almost half the electricity produced at Ignalina was destined for export -- some 7.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of the 13.917 billion sold last year by the plant went abroad, mainly to Russia, Belarus and Latvia.

With just one reactor in operation, exports of electricity are expected to shrink to some two billion kWh this year.

The government wants to continue using nuclear energy and has announced plans to seek international help to build and finance a new nuclear reactor.

The EU has promised to finance the closure of the Ignalina plant, estimated at between two and three billion euros (2.5-3.75 billion dollars) over 30 years.