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LITHUANIA

(Updated 2011)

1. General information

1.1 General Overview

The Republic of Lithuania is situated on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, in the geographical center of Europe. Lithuania is bordered by Latvia in the north, Belarus in the east, Poland in the south, Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation in the southwest and the Baltic Sea in the west. Fig.1.

FIG. 1. Map of Lithuania

Lithuania is situated in a temperate climate zone. The average annual temperature in Lithuania is 5.50C, with 17.80C in June and -6.50C in January. The absolute maximum-recorded temperature is 360C and the absolute minimum -400C. There are noticeable east-west weather variations. The western part, mostly influenced by the Baltic Sea, is characterized by the smallest temperature variations. The eastern part, where the Ignalina nuclear power plant is situated, has colder and longer winters and warmer but shorter summers.Western and south-western winds predominate.

The average annual amount of precipitation is 638 mm. About 70% of the precipitation takes place during the warm period of the year (April–October). The minimum relative humidity (53–63%) is in June and the maximum (exceeding 90%) in January.

In 2010, the population in Lithuania was 3.287 mln. (Table 1). Since 1991 owing to many reasons population has been decreasing on average by 0.6% per annum. Due to economic crisis and negative migration, in 2010, reduction of population was the highest – 1.58%. Compared to European Union countries the population density is comparatively sparse, the average density in 2010 was equal to 50.4 inhabitants/km2. Currently most of people (almost 67%) live in urban areas and two times less in rural areas. The capital Vilnius is the largest city and has a population of 546.3 thousand, the second largest city is Kaunas with 343.2 thousand and the third is Klaipeda with 180.7 thousand.

TABLE 1. POPULATION INFORMATION

1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Average per year, thousand 3697.8 3629.1 3499.5 3414.3 3394.1 3375.6 3358.1 3339.4 3286.8
Density, person/km2 56.7 55.7 53.7 52.4 52.1 51.8 51.5 51.2 50.4
Growth rates, %   -0.77 -0.70 -0.62 -0.59 -0.55 -0.52 -0.56 -1.58

1.1.1 Macroeconomic situation

The structure of the Lithuanian national economy inherited from its Soviet past was inappropriate in terms of size and access to raw materials and primary energy. Lithuania’s transition to free market economy occurred in two phases. From 1990 to 1995 new political and economic institutions were developed, simultaneously transforming centrally planned economic system into a market economy. Despite many difficulties during transition period, steady progress in strengthening the performance of market supporting institutions and undertaking the necessary reforms has enabled the possibility of a strong and comparatively long term economic recovery. After striking decline of the Lithuanian economy in 1990-1994, when GDP in dropped till 56.1% compared with its level in 1990, the period of 1995-2008 could be characterized by stable economic expansion (Table 2 and Fig.2).

TABLE 2. GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
At current prices, mln. LTL 134.1 26924.5 45736.8 72060.4 82792.8 98669.1 111482.6 91525.9 94625.3
At current prices, mln. EUR   5206.1 12364.6 20870.1 23978.5 28576.6 32287.6 26507.7 27405.4
At current prices, mln. USD   6731.1 11434.2 25971.4 30092.3 39107.9 74300.5 36864.0 36300.8
Chain linked volume, mln. LTL   36804.6 45736.8 66558.6 71779.9 78842.9 81151.0 69187.9 70108.3
GDP growth rate     3.3 7.8 7.8 9.8 2.9 -14.7 1.3

Since 1995 the country’s economy has been recovering very fast – on average by 6.3% per annum. One important factor stimulating country’s economic development during the period of 2000-2008 was economic support from the EU structural funds and various programs. Successful use of the EU membership and new opportunities are playing very positive role seeking to reduce social and economic differences between Lithuania and the developed EU countries and to approach gradually to average indicators in the EU-27. Owing to such fast economic development GDP per capita in Purchasing Power Standards, compare with the average of the EU-27, increased in Lithuania from 39% in 2000 to 62% in 2008.

One can state that at least three most important factors have had influence on worsening status of the country’s economy in 2009: 1) significant reduction in exports of many goods and decrease in turnover of domestic retail trade, 2) reduction of direct foreign investments and very low possibilities to get credits from banks, 3) absence of specially accumulated funds necessary to soften social problems during hard times. Due to impact of these factors real impact of the global economic recession on the Lithuanian economy was very severe – since April 2008 GDP growth rates were gradually decreasing, and in the fourth quarter of 2008 GDP decreased by 2.3%. In 2009, GDP decreased by 14.7% and only since the second quarter of 2010 GDP has been increasing again but rather slowly. In 2010, GDP increased by 1.3% and based on the recent forecast prepared by the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance the national economy will recover faster – by 5.8% in 2011and by 4.7% in 2012.

Fig. 2. GDP growth rate and GDP index

Indicators of GDP per capita are presented in Table 3 and changes in the status of gross value added by sectors – in Table 4. Economic development was rather balanced during the period 2000-2008 and all major sectors were growing, but the impact of economic recession during last two years was the strongest on activities in the construction sector. Faster growth of the Lithuanian economy since 2000 was accompanied by structural changes – the share of industry has increased from 23.8% in 2000 till 25.3% in 2005 but was decreasing during last few years till 20.0% in 2010. One can state fastest increase of activities in the construction sector (its share increased from 6.0% in 2000 to 10.2% in 2007) but very large reduction – to 5.2% in 2010. One can see stable reduction of contribution from agriculture and a tendency of increasing share of commercial and public services with the highest portion of 57.6% in 2010.

TABLE 3. CHANGES IN GDP PER CAPITA

1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
At current prices, LTL 7419 13070 21105 24393 29230 33198 27408 28789
At current prices, EUR 1435 3533 6113 7065 8466 9615 7938 8338
At current prices, USD 1855 3267 7607 8866 11585 22126 11039 11044
Chain linked volume, LTL 10142 13070 19494 21148 23357 24166 20719 21330

TABLE 4. STRUCTURE OF GROSS VALUE ADDED BY BRANCHES OF ECONOMY

  1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Industry 24.5 23.8 25.3 24.1 22.4 21.6 20.5 20.0
Construction 7.0 6.0 7.5 8.8 10.2 10.0 6.4 5.2
Agriculture 11.0 6.3 4.8 4.3 3.9 3.7 3.4 3.1
Transport 8.4 12.2 12.7 12.7 12.8 12.2 13.8 14.1
Commercial and public services 49.2 51.6 49.6 50.1 50.7 52.5 55.9 57.6

1.1.2 Alterations in primary energy balance

The development of the total primary energy consumption in million tons of oil equivalents is shown in Fig. 3 and Table 5. Oil and oil products were over several decades the most important fuels in Lithuania. However, since 1990 their share in the primary energy balance has been fluctuating in comparatively large range – from 44.2% in 1991 to 25.6% in 2003 with clear tendency of reduced role of heavy oil products due to decreasing consumption of heavy fuel oil for production of electricity and district heat. During the period 2003-2008 contribution of oil products into the primary energy balance was increasing due to growth in consumption of motor fuel, and in 2008 it was equal to 31.7%. However, in 2009, due to significant reduction of motor fuel consumption, share of oil products decreased to 29.3%.

At present natural gas is one of the most important fuels in the Lithuanian primary energy balance. The share of natural gas, the most attractive fuel in a long-term perspective, was about 25% over the period 1990-2008. During the last two years total consumption of natural gas was decreasing mostly owing to reduction of its non-energy use – in 2009 consumption of gas for production of mineral fertilizers was by 1.6 times less than in 2008 and by 1.9 times less than in 2007. This caused reduction of natural gas share in the balance of primary energy from 30.8% in 2007 to 27.9% in 2008 and to 25.6% in 2009.

Fig. 3. Primary energy supply, mln. toe


TABLE 5. PRIMARY ENERGY SUPPLY

  1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Indigenous resources 0.421 0.573 0.791 0.940 0.977 1.043 1.060 1.098
Nuclear energy 4.439 3.081 2.194 2.694 2.255 2.562 2.578 2.828
Coal 0.782 0.226 0.089 0.188 0.261 0.248 0.2092 0.156
Natural gas 4.679 2.029 2.064 2.477 2.455 2.892 2.596 2.182
Oil products 6.848 3.024 2.169 2.692 2.691 2.727 2.9557 2.496
Electricity export -1.030 -0.230 -0.115 -0.255 -0.037 -0.118 -0.082 -0.252
Total 16.138 8.702 7.191 8.735 8.600 9.354 9.317 8.508

The role of coal was decreasing – from 4.8% in 1990 to 1.0% in 2001. During the period 2002-2007 share of coal in the primary energy balance was increasing and reached 2.7% in 2007, but in 2009 its contribution decreased again to 1.8%.

During the period 1990-2009 the share of the nuclear – the cheapest imported fuel – was very high and fluctuated about 30% with the lowest value of 19.7% in 1991 and the highest value of 37.0% in 2003. The role of nuclear fuel was very important because being comparatively cheap, nuclear fuel helped to relieve certain burden of balance of payments and therefore softening social problems. Nuclear fuel helped to increase the security of the primary energy supply, especially in the power sector. The share of nuclear energy in the primary energy balance in the year 2009 (year of final closure of Ignalina NPP) was 30.3%.

Primary energy resources in Lithuania are rather scarce. To meet energy requirements of consumers’ local oil, peat, wood, geothermal and hydro energy, as well as energy from chemical processes could be used. In 2009, their share in the country’s primary energy balance was 14.3%. Their contribution was increasing very fast during the period 1990-2001 owing to steady growth of local oil extraction – from 12 thousand tonnes in 1990 to the maximal amount of 471 thousand tonnes in 2001. But during the last 8 years extraction of local oil decreased more than 4 times – to 115 thousand tones in 2009. Certain contribution into balance of indigenous resources is originated from energy of chemical processes. This energy corresponds to the content of the thermal energy gained in the chemical processes (production of fertilizers), which is transferred into hot water and steam. Share of heat utilized at factories producing mineral fertilizers in the balance of indigenous resources was fluctuating with the highest value of 19.6% in 1990 and the lowest value of 5.8% in 1994. In 2009, their share was equal to 17.7%.

Since 2001, renewable energy sources are playing more and more important role. In 2009, their share in the balance of indigenous energy resources increased to 71.9%. Currently the main renewable energy resource is biomass (including wood waste, boughs, wood chips, pellets, sawdust and waste from agriculture). The contribution of hydro energy in absolute value is fluctuating depending on climatic conditions with small changes, and since 2006 contribution of bio-fuels, used as a motor fuel for the road transport, as well as of wind energy is increasing.

According principles of the international statistics it is considered that nuclear fuel is a domestic energy source independently where its supply is coming from. This principle is based on two reasons: 1) low dependence on daily supply of this fuel and 2) rather big fuel inventory in the core of nuclear power plant. Therefore domestic production of primary energy resources in Lithuania includes nuclear fuel, which is used for electricity generation. In fact nuclear fuel was imported from Russian nuclear fuel enrichment facilities. However, due to aforementioned reasons Ignalina NPP was not sensitive to fuel supply interruptions and this was important factor substantially increased the security of energy supply. Thus, taking into account increasing contribution of both domestic energy resources and nuclear fuel into the country’s energy balance, dependence of Lithuania on energy import was decreasing from 70% in 1990 to 42% in 2003, but after closure of Unit 1 at Ignalina NPP it increased again until 60% in 2006 and 2007. This dependence increased significantly after closure of Unit 2 at Ignalina NPP. Based on preliminary expert assessment dependence on energy import in 2010 was about 83%.

Final electricity consumption decreased from 12 TWh in 1990 to 6.2 TWh in 2000 but was increasing by 4.8% per annum during the period 2000-2008 (Table 6). Electricity consumption was increasing in all sectors of the national economy (Fig. 4 and Fig.5). The highest growth rates during the period 2000-2008 were in the services sector (7.1%) and in households (5.6%). Electricity consumption was growing comparatively slowly in the industry and construction (2.5%) and in particular in agriculture (0.6%). In 2009, due to economic recession the total final electricity demand decreased by 7.4%, including its reduction in the construction sector by 20.4%, in manufacturing by 12.7%, the services sector by 8.8%, but in households reduction electricity demand was negligible.

Fluctuation of the gross electricity demand in Lithuania was caused by changes of own use in the power plants, electricity consumption for charge of Kruonis Hydro Power Plant, Mažeikiai Oil Refinery and losses in networks.

TABLE 6. FINAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION

Final electricity consumption, TWh
  1990 1995 2000 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Industry 5.202 2.624 2.188 2.716 2.810 2.950 2.665 2.327
Construction 0.258 0.081 0.106 0.117 0.123 0.131 0.130 0.103
Agriculture 2.697 0.521 0.188 0.193 0.197 0.207 0.197 0.183
Transport 0.120 0.096 0.076 0.104 0.091 0.070 0.083 0.077
Households 1.762 1.543 1.767 2.141 2.350 2.464 2.730 2.726
Trade and services 1.971 1.490 1.872 2.707 2.860 3.037 3.240 2.955
Total 12.010 6.355 6.197 7.977 8.431 8.859 9.043 8.371

Fig. 4.Gross electricity consumption

Fig. 5. Final electricity consumption, TWh

1.2 Energy Information

Lithuania and the other Baltic States have no relevant gas or electricity interconnections with the rest of the EU. Dependence on single external supplier and status of an “energy island” in the EU are two main factors describing Lithuania’s current energy situation and its energy policy objectives.

A number of projects are being developed which are expected to decrease Lithuania’s dependence on single external energy supplier. These include, among others, the electricity interconnection “NordBalt” between Sweden and Lithuania, the electricity interconnection “LitPol Link” between Poland and Lithuania, new Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania (Visaginas NPP), an underground natural gas storage facility and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

From 31 December 2009, due to the shutdown of the state-owned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (Ignalina NPP), Lithuania’s electricity generation structure (shown in Fig.6) has changed significantly and Lithuania changed from a net exporter of electricity to a net importer of electricity.

The energy sector is particularly important to the Lithuanian economy and energy security is a strategic priority for the Government. In October, 2010, the National Energy (Energy Independence) Strategy was endorsed by the Government and submitted to the Parliament for the final approval. It foresees the most crucial assignments for Lithuania to achieve its energy independence until 2020. It will be ensured by breaking Lithuania’s energy isolation (alternative ways to import energy resources will be established) and by securing sufficient and competitive internal capacities of energy production.

The shutdown of Ignalina NPP at the end of 2009 required clear and strategically binding attitude how the generation capacities of Ignalina NPP could be replaced by alternative generation capacities. National Energy (Energy Independence) Strategy states that sufficient local power generation capacities (estimated at 12–14 TWh in 2020) will be ensured by construction of a new Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant and by the increase of power generation from renewable energy sources (their contribution is increasing fast, Fig. 7), also some part of power being purchased in electricity market through existing and constructing power interconnections.

Lithuania has recently taken steps to liberalise its electricity market and expects the Lithuanian electricity market to be fully liberalised for all consumers by 2015. Lithuania intends to use “Nord Pool”, the single power market for the Nordic countries, as the model for its electricity market. The liberalisation of the Lithuanian electricity market is expected to be a crucial step towards the creation of a common electricity market in the Baltic States and Lithuania’s subsequent integration into the “Nord Pool” and the electricity market of continental Europe.

As a consequence of the shutdown of Ignalina NPP from the 1st of January 2010, the average electricity price for households, which is regulated, increased by approximately 30 % as compared to the price on 31 December 2009. 1 January 2010 also marked the official start of the electricity market in Lithuania (in the first among the Baltic States) – a crucial step towards the common Baltic electricity market. In 2010 approximately 70 % of all Lithuania’s electricity needs were purchased through the electricity market and this market platform conditioned the cheapest available power for the consumers. However, having not enough domestic competitive generation capacities Lithuania was forced to import a huge part of the electricity. In 2010 Lithuania imported more than 62 % of electricity needed to satisfy its demand. It is the highest import score among the EU member states.

In June, 2010, Government approved National Renewable Energy Sources Development Strategy, which aims in 2020 to achieve at least 23 % share in the gross final energy consumption to be produced from renewables. The biggest potential is foreseen in wind energy, hydro energy (for power generation) and biomass (mostly for heat production). At the end of 2009 renewables comprised 17 % of all energy used by final consumers, 9 % of electricity produced in the gross electricity consumption.

1.3 The electricity system

In January 2009, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania was re-established for the purpose to reform the Lithuanian energy sector. Since then, a number of reforms have been undertaken in the energy sector.

In 2009, the EU adopted the Third Energy Package, a package of legislative measures aimed at liberalising EU energy markets. Based on the ownership unbundling requirements of the Third Energy Package, Lithuania is successfully reforming the electricity sector by separating transmission from generation and supply activities. In 2010, four blocks of energy companies were established (consisting of energy transmission, production, distribution and maintenance activities). The ownership unbundling will increase the overall efficiency of the power system, prevent discrimination against new market participants willing to connect to the grid, optimize the use and development of infrastructure, incentivise economic investment and ensure competitive prices for electricity consumers.

Due to historical factors, Lithuania’s high voltage electricity transmission grid is directly interconnected with the high voltage grids of Latvia, Belarus and the Kaliningrad Region of the Russian Federation. These interconnections allow extensive exchanges of power with such neighbouring systems. However, a core objective of Lithuania’s energy strategy is the integration of its power system into the common European electricity market as well as synchronous interconnection with Continental system of ENTSO-E. Seeking integration into EU energy systems, a number of energy projects are being carried out.

A marine underwater high voltage cable (Estlink) was completed in 2006 as a result of a joint venture between power companies in Finland and the Baltic States. Estlink allows the transportation of electricity between Finland and Estonia. The electricity is then transported from Estonia through the electricity transmission grid to Lithuania and Latvia. As key parts of the integration of the Baltic electricity market into the common European electricity market, new interconnection lines with Sweden (NordBalt) and Poland (LitPol Link) are in the process of being implemented.

NordBalt is a planned 700 MW submarine power cable between Lithuania and Sweden. In an effort to further exploit renewable energy sources, NordBalt will be constructed with the capability to access energy produced by offshore wind farms that may be constructed in the future. NordBalt is expected to cost EUR 516–738 million, of which EUR 175 million will be provided by the European Economy Recovery Plan. NordBalt is currently targeted for completion by the end of 2015. A number of preparation works for the construction of the interconnection has already been completed, including: a) a seabed survey for the NordBalt interconnection in the Baltic Sea, b) the preparation of the technical specifications for the NordBalt cable and converters, c) the tender process has successfully finished and on December, 2010 Swedish (Svenska Kraftnät) and Lithuanian (Litgrid) transmission system operators have signed a EUR 270 million worth contract with the Swedish energy and automated technologies company ABB, which will produce and install the 300 kV HVDC cable for the NordBalt interconnection.

LitPol Link is a planned 1,000 MW electricity link between Lithuania and Poland and is listed among the EU’s priority energy infrastructure projects. According to the pre-feasibility study the cost of establishing LitPol Link is expected to be EUR 237 million and the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. In addition, Poland will invest EUR 650 million and Lithuania EUR 262 million to upgrade existing energy infrastructure. Preparation for the construction of the LitPol Link has already commenced in the form of: a) the financial and action plan of the interconnection; b) territorial planning, c) environmental impact assessments for the 400 kV overhead power transmission line and Lithuanian substation.

Lithuania is developing the Visaginas NPP, in the vicinity of the now-defunct Ignalina NPP. The pre-development phase of the Visaginas NPP was completed in January 2010. The Visaginas NPP is currently targeted for completion in 2020. It is a regional project in that the electricity it produces is expected to be distributed to the entire region. Currently, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are participating in the project as regional partners. At the moment, Lithuania is seeking an experienced investor or group of investors with strong credentials in the development of new generation and operation of nuclear power plants to participate in the project. The invitation to submit the binding proposals ended on November, 2010. On December, 2010 the Concession Tender Commission, which has been delegated to organise a tender for the selection of a Strategic Investor into Visaginas nuclear power plant, having analyzed the submissions of binding proposals, announced that Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) submitted an attractive binding proposal to co-invest in the project and to construct a nuclear power plant in the period to 2020, but two weeks after submission of its proposal KEPCO unexpectedly informed the Concession Tender Commission that it is revoking its proposal. In absence of valid binding proposals, which would meet the tender requirements, the winner of the tender was not selected. The process of granting concession by way of direct negotiations without tender, but following the same conditions, is now being commenced.

Fig. 6.Gross electricity production

Fig. 7.Electricity generation from renewable sources



2. NUCLEAR POWER SITUATION

2.1 Historical development and current nuclear power organizational structure

2.1.1 Overview

The decision to build a nuclear power plant in the Baltic region for electricity supply to the Baltic States, Belarus and Kaliningrad was made by the former government of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the seventies. After the formal agreement of the Lithuanian Government, the site on the shore of Druksiai lake near the borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus was selected. Construction of the first unit of the Ignalina NPP commenced in April 1978, the second unit followed in April 1980, and the third unit in 1985. The town of Visaginas (formerly named Snieckus) was built for the workers of the Ignalina NPP. The first unit was commissioned in December 1983 and the second in August 1987. In August 1988, the former USSR Council of Ministers suspended the construction of the third unit. In November 1993 the Lithuanian Government decided to abandon the construction of Unit 3 and dismantle the existing structure. In 1999 decision was made to close first unit of Ignalina NPP before 2005 and in 2002 it was decided to close second unit in 2009. The development of the Ignalina NPP design was carried out by the Research and Development Institute for Energy Technology (Russian abbreviation - VNIPIET), St. Petersburg, (at that time Leningrad) Russia. This institute developed the design of the reactor internals and other related structural components. The development of the Accident Localisation System was carried out by the Sverdlovsk branch, Ekaterinburg, Russia, of the above mentioned institute. Metal structures of the main building were designed by the Main Design Office "Leningrad Steel Design" (translation of the Russian – “Leningradstalkonstrukcija”), St. Petersburg, Russia. The turbine hall, the open distributive system and the auxiliary facilities were developed by the Atomic Energy Design Organisation (Russian abbreviation -“Atomenergoproekt”), Kiev, Ukraine. It was intended that Ignalina NPP would be the pilot nuclear power plant for the RBMK-1500 reactor type. The scientific supervisor of the RBMK-1500 project was the Kurchatov Atomic Energy Institute (often referred to as the Russian Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”), Moscow, Russia. The principal designer of the nuclear steam supply system was the Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (RDIPE – Russian abbreviation –NIKIET), Moscow, Russia. These two institutes prepared and published the Technical Safety Justification of the RBMK-1500 Reactor in 1987. These institutes, together with the Research and Development Institute for Energy Technology, prepared the Technical Safety Justification of the Ignalina NPP in 1988. This safety report came closer to the Western standard in comparison with the Technical Safety Justification of the RBMK-1500 reactor. However, the Technical Safety Justification of the Ignalina NPP was not officially approved.

2.1.2 Current organizational chart

The following state institutions and bodies are involved in nuclear power related activities:

• Ministry of Energy

• State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (Lithuanian abbreviation – VATESI)

• Ministry of Health

• Ministry of Environment

• Ministry of Social Security and Labour

• Ministry of Transport and Communications

• Ministry of National Defence

• Ministry of Interior

• State Security Department

• Governmental Emergencies Commission

• County Governors and

• Local Authorities

The Ministry of Energy is responsible for the implementation of state policy, organizes bilateral and multilateral international co-operation in the sphere of nuclear energy and is the responsible authority for promotion and ownership of nuclear facilities. The Ministry of Energy is the owner of the Ignalina NPP and is responsible for a broad scale of activities: tariffs, pricing system, organisation, and financial audits. The Ministry supervises the nuclear energy sector and is responsible for the preparation of regulatory acts governing nuclear energy and nuclear safety and for co-ordination of assistance for nuclear safety improvements. The Ignalina NPP Problems Co-ordination Division was established in 2001 in connection with the closure of the Ignalina NPP’s unit one. The task of the Division is supervision of the Ignalina NPP decommissioning sector and preparation of regulatory acts governing of the decommissioning and radioactive waste management.

The Radioactive Waste Management Agency (RATA) was established in 2001 by the Ministry of Economy for management and disposal of all transferred to it radioactive waste, generated by the Ignalina NPP during the operation and decommissioning, as well as to collect, process and to dispose of institutional waste. Agency’s task is to construct and operate the repositories for both short-lived and long-lived radioactive waste.

The Ministry of Economy is responsible for the issue of licences for the export, import and transit of nuclear, radioactive and other materials used in nuclear technology, nuclear equipment and dual-use items.

The State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) is the main regulatory and supervisory institution of nuclear safety, which sets safety requirements, controls whether they are complied with, issues licenses and permits, performs safety assessments, regulatory inspections and other functions. VATESI mission is to perform the state regulation and supervision of safety at nuclear facilities in order to protect the public and environment against harmful effects of nuclear and radiation events and accidents.

VATESI is a governmental institution, established in 1991, VATESI Head directly reports to the Prime Minister. The main goals of VATESI:

• State regulation and supervision of safety at Ignalina NPP and other nuclear facilities;

• State regulation and supervision of nuclear waste management at nuclear facilities;

• Supervision of use of nuclear materials and technologies for peaceful purposes (application of the IAEA and EURATOM safeguards);

• State regulation and supervision of physical protection of nuclear facilities and materials;

• State regulation and supervision of transportation of nuclear fuel cycle materials;

• Emergency preparedness.

The Ministry of Health shall:

Most of these functions are delegated to Radiation Protection Centre (RPC), which is the regulatory body coordinating the activities of executive and other bodies of public administration and local government in the field of radiation protection, monitoring and expert examination of public exposure. Among other responsibilities the RPC is responsible for supervision of the fulfilment of the requirements regarding the radiation protection of workers and the general public from negative impact which may cause the ionizing radiation, including ionizing radiation, arising from nuclear facilities in operation and decommissioning.

In case of nuclear accident in INPP RPC presents recommendations to the State Emergency Commission, to all levels of Emergency Management Centres, executive and other bodies of public administration for the reduction of exposure doses and prevention of deterministic and stochastic effects of radiation on the public and emergency workers. RPC performs analysis of foodstuffs, drinking-water and other samples, contaminated by radionuclides, and presents suggest to the Ministry of Health to approve foodstuffs and their raw materials, drinking-water, feeding stuffs temporary maximum permissible levels of radioactive contamination for the emergency consequences liquidation period, organizes supervision and control of their compliance. Also RPC presents suggest to the Ministry of Health about the necessity of applying iodine prophylaxis and provide information to the public, within the limits of its competence, about protection actions. In order to continually ensure emergency preparedness, RPC has approved the emergency preparedness plan and established internal EPO. Currently a new national off-site plan for is under development by FRD.

The Ministry of Environment is responsible for establishing environmental pollution norms, monitoring compliance and licensing of emissions. The Ministry of the Environment coordinates environmental impact assessments, establishes the limits of radioactive emissions into the environment, issues single authorizations for transport of radioactive substances and radioactive waste inside the country, export, import and transit. After consultation with the VATESI and the Ministry of Health establishes procedure for the import, export, transit and transportation of radioactive substances and radioactive waste within the country and for return of used sealed sources, defines handling and disposal, sets maximum permissible levels for radioactive releases in the environment and authorises the use of natural resources. Ministry is also responsible for establishing radiation protection standards and monitoring their compliance together with the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Social Security and Labour is responsible for compliance with the requirements of labour, safety at work and related statutory acts.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications participates in the drafting of laws and subordinate legislation and the training and certification of personnel for the transportation of nuclear and radioactive materials.

The Ministry of National Defence is responsible for the protection and security of transportation of nuclear and radioactive material cargoes across the territory of the country. In cooperation with Ignalina NPP and other local and national authorities Ministry develops plans for public protection in case of an accident at Ignalina NPP. Together with VATESI and other state authorities, the Ministry organises exercises for coping with nuclear accidents.

The Fire and Rescue Department is the co-ordinating institution in respect of the preparation of emergency plans and their implementation in the event of an accident in the Ignalina NPP. The department organises of the training sessions of population protection in the event of nuclear accident.

The Ministry of Interior insures fire protection and physical safety of the nuclear power plant and other nuclear facilities, is responsible for preparing, co-ordination and implementation of the interdepartmental anti-terrorist and anti-penetration action plans, investigation the cases of theft and illegal possession of nuclear and radioactive materials and other dual-purpose commodities.

The State Security Department exercises prevention of subversive, sabotage and terrorist acts as well as other offences aimed at damaging the interests of state security at nuclear facilities, in their environment, and on transportation routes of nuclear and radioactive materials.

The Governmental Emergencies Commission is responsible for the co-ordination of the activities of all the bodies and forces taking part in the containment of a nuclear accident and its consequences.

The County Governors have powers that are delegated to them by the Law on County Government, the Law on Nuclear Energy and other laws and subordinate legislation of the Republic of Lithuania. Some of these have reference to nuclear facilities and emergency activities within their county.

The Local Authorities are responsible for municipal and public interactions with sitting applications, nuclear facilities and activities in the territories under their jurisdiction that are within the sanitary protection or monitoring zones.


2.2 Nuclear power plants: Overview

2.2.1 Status and performance of nuclear power plants

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) is the only nuclear installation in Lithuania. It contains two RBMK-1500 reactors, which have their own design peculiarities comparing with eleven RBMK-1000 units what are currently in operation in Russian Federation. INPP is located in the north-eastern part of Lithuania, near the borders with the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Belarus. The power plant was built as part of the Soviet Union's North-West Unified Power System. The first Unit of INPP was connected to grid at the end of 1983, and the second Unit – in August 1987. Design lifetime of the Units was projected out to 2014-2017 accordingly. Totally four Units were originally planned to be built on INPP site. Construction of the third Unit was suspended in 1988 due to political pressure, and construction of the forth one had never been started. INPP finally shut down Unit 1 on 31 December 2004 and Unit 2 on 31 December 2009 in compliance with the protocol of Lithuania's EU accession.

On 26 December 2008 the first Unit, which was shut down on 31 December 2004, was designated as a finally shut down one. Defueling of Unit 1 reactor was begun in 2006. It was performed according working program which was based on approved by VATESI safety justification. The safety justification confirmed monotonic increase of subcriticality during refuelling as well as demonstrated acceptability of consequences of possible accidents. During refuelling relevant parameters were monitored by equipment. Till the end of defueling process reactor was monitored by control room personnel all the time. A part of removed spent fuel assemblies was transported to Unit 2 for after-burning. In December 2009 defueling was completed. 978 FAs have been transported to Unit 2 for afterburning and the remaining assemblies were put into spent fuel storage pools.

After shut-down on 31 of December 2009 Unit 2 was maintained in post-operation state based on VATESI license and in accordance with the requirements of Technical conditions for operation of Unit 2. The validity of the Technical conditions has been extended until 31 December 2010. Technical conditions for operation of Unit 2 covering defueling phase have now been developed and are undergoing agreement by various stakeholders. Unit 2 Decommissioning Project covering final shutdown, defueling phases and including the Safety Analysis Report has been developed. In December 2009 the Decommissioning Project and the SAR have been submitted for VATESI review. From the organizational point of view, activities for INPP safety assurance are implemented within the framework of SIP-3.


2.3 Historical enhancement of Ignalina NPP performance

The Safety Analysis Report (SAR) (1995-1996) – first Western-style safety analysis for any Soviet-design NPP. Specialists from the Ignalina NPP, Russia (main RBMK designer RDIPE), Canada, UK, USA and Sweden participated in the project. The SAR team supported the Ignalina NPP management convincing that (1) an adequate safety case for continuing operation of plant had been demonstrated; (2) the safety case would be adequate to the point of first gap closure, which will be the lifetime limiting factor; and (3) the plant’s safety standards and practices had been assessed and recommendations for improvement had been made and accepted by Ignalina NPP. A significant conclusion stated in the SAR is that none of the analysed safety concerns require the immediate shutdown of the plant.

The Review of Safety Analysis Report (RSR) (1995-1997) – an independent review of the SAR, which was performed by Western (France, Germany, Italy, UK and USA) and Eastern (Lithuania, Russia) experts. The RSR team agrees with almost all the SAR team’s recommendations for improvement and made some additional recommendations. They, however, were not able to agree that a fully adequate safety case had been demonstrated and gave a set of recommendations both on the additional analyses and safety improvement measures to be implemented. These recommendations formed a basis for the Ignalina NPP’s Second Safety Improvement Program (SIP-2) approved in 1997.

Safety analyses recommended by SAR, RSR and Ignalina Safety Panel (1997-1999) – these analyses had been conducted by Lithuanian or Russian experts, but had been independently reviewed by Western experts, mainly by experts from former RSR team.

Lithuania, Russia, USA, Sweden, Great Britain and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development participated and were taking part in performance of Safety Improvement Program SIP-2, which was started in 1997. Objective of SIP-2 program was – improvement of safety of Ignalina NPP both power Units with reference to equipment, operating procedures and management to the level of Western standards.

The safety of INPP Unit 2 operation was grounded by Safety Analysis Report - SAR-2. SAR-2 was prepared in 2000 and after review by VATESI in September 2004, INPP received a indefinite validity license for Unit 2 operation. According to VATESI requirements, in order to continue Unit 2 operation after the final shutdown of Unit 1, INPP has prepared a Safety Justification for the only operating Unit 2. The Safety Justification for the only operating Unit 2 was developed on the basis of Unit 2 condition at the end of December 2004, i.e. when the Unit 1 final shutdown was scheduled. The Safety Justification is based on SAR-2 and RSR-2, it covers the safety issues related to changes of operation conditions for Unit 2 process systems and common plant process systems and changes of administrative structure of INPP following the Unit 1 final shutdown. The Safety Justification also considers planned modifications of Unit 2 systems, which are affected by the Unit 1 final shutdown, configurations of Unit 1 process systems during the decommissioning of Unit 1. The Safety Justification for the only operating INPP Unit 2 has determined the high level of INPP safety and demonstrated that operation of the Unit 2 will be safe enough after end of operation of Unit 1.

From 2006 to 2008 INPP has updated the Safety Analysis Report for Unit 2. The update was implemented taking into account the results of modifications, analytical work and changes to INPP safety management system, carried out during the period of 2001-2007. 127 modifications of Unit 2 main equipment and 50 analytical works have been carried out based on review report of SAR-2 (RSR-2), VATESI recommendations, as well as based on INPP's own initiative as part of the process of updating SAR-2. The results of analytical work were used as a basis for implementation of a number of modifications at Unit 2, such as use of uranium-erbium fuel with 2.8% enrichment, commissioning of a diverse shut down system, use of cluster control rods. Implementation of these modifications allowed for a significant increase of nuclear safety of INPP Unit 2.

Ageing analysis of thermal and mechanical equipment components of safety related systems did not identify any components, ageing of which would be a limiting factor for Unit 2 life. Analysis of fuel channels corrosion revealed that considering the current speed of wall thickness reduction corrosion is not a life limiting factor for the channels. Operational statistics showed that power and signal cables of all types are operating within the normal operation range. The existing ageing control and management programmes are efficient enough to allow detect the moment when normal operation range ends and intensive aging range starts.

Assessment of all areas of operation performed in the update of SAR-2, the actual condition of systems and equipment, completed modifications and results of analytical work have shown that the existing level of INPP Unit 2 safety is in compliance with established safety criteria and that the second Unit can safely continue operation.

The main modification which was done at INPP unit 2 was installation of Diverse Shutdown System (DSS). In October 2004 DSS has been put into trial-industrial operation. The requirement of the Regulations on the availability of two independent Shutdown Systems has been implemented. Each system is aimed at ensuring the transfer of the reactor core into sub-critical condition as well as maintaining the reactor core in sub-critical condition taking into account the principle of single failure or the failure caused by personnel actions. Following VATESI requirements and in order to ensure diversity of types of equipment comprising the two diverse reactor shutdown systems, 49 servo-actuators of a new type AZ/BSM-274/20 have been designed and installed on the CPS as part of unit 2 DSS implementation activities. DSS implementation was fully completed in 2008, including training of the operating and maintenance staff. Within the frame of the DSS design the safety justification of the DSS has been implemented with the application of full-scope PSA model. Unit 2 PSA model has been adjusted taking into account the DSS PSA full-scope model.

2001 Ignalina NPP made an important step towards the management of beyond design accidents – in addition to emergency procedures (when the operator before intervention should to analyse the emergency event and its initial causes) the Symptom-Based Emergency Operating Instructions (Russian abbreviation – SOAI) were introduced. Symptom-based emergency operating procedures are easy to handle in the accidents in which it is difficult to correctly diagnose the cause. These emergency procedures are based on the idea that in order to perform corrective action is not necessary to diagnose the initial event. They describe the operator actions, which ensure safe nuclear power status regardless of the initial event.

In order to prevent the evolution of the design accidents into the beyond design accidents and to mitigate the consequences of the beyond design accidents the following Guidelines on the management of the beyond design accidents (Russian abbreviation – RUZA) have been developed at INPP for Unit 2:

RUZA -R1. Assurance of the heat removal from the reactor.

RUZA -R2. Pressure reduction in the reactor space.

RUZA -R3. The Accident localisation System (ALS) condition management.

RUZA -RB. Reduction of the Fission Products' release.

RUZA -B. The Storage Pools' condition management.

For all indicated Guidelines the appropriate justifications are available. In order to implement RUZA strategies, during period 2007-2008 INPP existing equipment were modified and INPP personnel involved in emergency response activities has been trained.

Leak Before Break (LBB) concept has been implemented at INPP in 2007. This assured the fulfilment of the existing nuclear requirements. The following Coolant Leakage Detection Systems have been introduced at INPP:

Leakage detection in the premises of the lower water communication lines.

Leakage detection in the premises of the ALS leek-tight confinements.

Coolant leakage detection in the steam pipelines of the turbine generator-3 and turbine generator -4 vaults.

The implementation of these systems helped to increase the safety of the Unit since it allowed detecting small coolant leakages at the early stage of the equipment leak-tightness loss.

Decommissioning: information and plans

On 5 October 1999 the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Seimas) approved the National Energy Strategy in accordance with which Unit 1 at INPP was considered to be shut down by 2005, given the long-term substantial financial support conditions of the European Union, G-7 and other countries and international financial institutions. On 31 December 2004 Unit 1 was shut down. in compliance with the protocol of Lithuania's EU accession, and Unit 2 is to be operated until the end of 2009.

At this time Unit 1 is maintained in post-operation state, based on VATESI license and in accordance with the requirements of Technical conditions for operation of Unit 1 for defueling phase. Decommissioning of various Unit 1 facilities is underway. These activities are performed in accordance with the "INPP Final Decommissioning Plan", approved by the Government of Republic of Lithuanian in May 2005 and in line with Unit 1 decommissioning project for defueling phase.

Unit 2 Decommissioning Project covering final shutdown, defueling phases and including the Safety Analysis Report has been developed. In December 2009 the Decommissioning Project and the SAR have been submitted for VATESI review.

On 19 February 2001 the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the Decommissioning Program of INPP Unit 1 envisaging the measures for 2001-2004. On 2 February 2005 the Government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the new Decommissioning Programme for both Units of INPP. The main objectives of the Programme are:

To ensure safe operation of INPP during preparatory decommissioning phase and during actual decommissioning activities.

Develop, modify and add to the legal acts related to INPP decommissioning.

Ensure the work of INPP Decommissioning Service and Unit 1 Surveillance Service.

In the order defined by the legal acts, evaluate both the preparatory decommissioning projects and the decommissioning projects in respect to nuclear and radiation safety as well as license them.

To mitigate negative social and economic effects. It also specifies necessary organizational, technical, economical and social measures to achieve the above mentioned objectives.

Furthermore, on 25 February 2005 the plan was approved by the order of the Minister of Economy on implementation of measures of the decommissioning program of INPP Units 1 and 2 envisaging the measures for addressing environmental, social and economic problems, as well as the consequences of premature decommissioning. The document is reissued once a year.

Following the Resolution No.1448 of 4 November 2009 by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania the second unit of INPP was shut down on 31 December 2009.


2.4 The Final Decommissioning Plan

Preparing for decommissioning and implementing the General requirements for decommissioning the INPP, approved by the Head of VATESI in 1999 and supplemented in 2003, INPP prepared the Final Decommissioning Plan (FDP). In 2005 this plan was approved by the Ministry of Economy. In 2009 the FDP was updated.

The plan includes the whole period of INPP decommissioning (both Units, auxiliary equipment and interim storage facilities for spent fuel and waste). On basis of proposed strategy decommissioning activities and projects are being planned. FDP describes principles, methods and technologies, as well as general schedule, which will be necessary for ensuring safe, in respect to radiation, ecological and efficient decommissioning process. The following information is presented in INPP FDP:

In respect to nuclear safety the activities connected with possible risk will be carried out for the first ten years after final shutdown of the reactors (spent fuel treatment, decontamination, modification and isolation of systems). The works will be prepared and performed by INPP qualified staff.

FDP describes the volumes of waste which are not finally treated and which shall be taken into account while decommissioning preparation and realization. In order to summarize it can be affirmed that as a result of INPP operation and decommissioning about 5900 m3 of spent resins, perlite and sediments, as well as 130000 m3 of solid radioactive waste will be generated. This waste shall be treated in the new cementation facility and in the future Solid Waste Management and Storage Facility. After that waste, depending on the category, can be sent for free release (if contamination levels are less than controlled), disposed in the near surface repository for very low active short-lived waste or temporarily stored on the power plant site until the appropriate repositories will be constructed (near surface or deep geological). Taking into account the envisaged volumes of waste it is recommended to construct near surface repository for very low active shortlived waste with capacity 60000 m3 and near surface repository with capacity 100000 m3. The volume of bituminized waste will be more than 24000 m3. After INPP empty buildings dismantling and disassembling of their constructions 965000 m3 of concrete and 190000 tons of steel will be generated additionally, and their level of contamination by radionuclides will be less than controlled.

Since INPP decommissioning is such economical activity for which the process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is obligatory, in parallel with FDP the Program of Assessment of the Planned Economical Activity Impact on the Environment was developed and approved. It is specified in EIA programme what issues will be reviewed in EIA reports, as well as INPP environment is described, since according to it the impact of decommissioning on the environment will be evaluated later.


2.5 Decommissioning Project for INPP Unit 1 Final Shutdown and Defueling Phase

Decommissioning Project for INPP Unit 1 Final Shutdown and Defueling Phase including SAR and EIA Report was prepared in August 2004. Project and its SAR and EIA were accepted by State competent authorities.

In June 2006 VATESI approved the Decommissioning Project for INPP Unit 1 Final Shutdown and Defueling Phase and its safety analysis report. VATESI also arranged nuclear safety review of the project and review's conclusion submitted to the Ministry of Environment that arranged the State Complex Expertise of the project. The conclusions of State Complex Expertise were issued in October 2006.

Decommissioning Project covers works which will be performed within the frames of prolonged operational license for INPP Unit 1. It is one of the documents substantiating the permission for reactor final shutdown. The project has double purpose:

  1. Process regulations, in which: the systems (their parts) which are not needed any more are indicated, their further isolation/modification is described, that allow reducing costs for the shutdown Unit maintenance;

In-line decontamination of MCC and refuelling machine is described (with the aim to reduce personnel irradiation during further dismantling works performance).

  1. Guide on planning in which all expenses of the described period are estimated (related not only to process activities, but to operation of remained systems, treatment of fuel and radioactive waste, as well as other preparatory works), need in man power, personnel irradiation, discharges into environment and radiation impact on the population.

The Project does not cover dismantling works, since they will be performed within the frames of other dismantling and decontamination projects.

In 2004 VATESI and the INPP agreed as to what documents would have to be analyzed in order to grant Unit 1 the status of a finally shutdown facility. In late 2006 having analyzed the last of the submitted documents, VATESI granted this status to the INPP unit 1 and gave permission to carry out operations envisaged in Decommissioning Project for INPP Unit 1 Final Shutdown and Defueling Phase.

In June 2007 VATESI and the INPP agreed as to what documents would have to be analyzed in order to grant Unit 2 the status of a finally shutdown facility.

Environmental impact is analyzed in EIA report, on basis of which Ministry of Environment has accepted affirmative solution regarding final shutdown of INPP and possibilities of nuclear defueling in respect to environmental impact. In accordance with Espoo Convention EIA report is a subject of consultations.


2.6 Decommissioning Project for INPP Unit 2 Final Shutdown and Defueling Phase

Unit 2 Decommissioning Project covering final shutdown, defueling phases and including the Safety Analysis Report was developed in November 2009. In December 2009 the Decommissioning Project and the SAR have been submitted for VATESI review.

Unit 2 decommissioning EIA covering the final shutdown and defueling phase was developed in June 2009. Following review by state authorities the EIA together with the authorities' conclusions was sent in the beginning of 2010 to the Ministry of Environment.

In accordance with the Requirements for decommissioning of nuclear facilities (P-2009-02), INPP must obtain VATESI permission for final shutdown of Unit 2 reactor. Such permission may be granted following provision to VATESI and review by the regulator of relevant documentation, including:

Ministry of Environment conclusions on Unit 2 EIA covering the final shutdown and defueling phase,

Conclusions of the State expertise panel on Unit 2 Decommissioning Project covering the final shutdown and defueling phase, and Technical specifications for operation of Unit 2 for the reactor defueling phase.

Nuclear power development: projections and plans

Upon Lithuania’s decision regarding development of nuclear energy aimed at assurance of the country’s energy independence, at the end of 2006 three energy companies of the Baltic States - AB Lietuvos Energija, AS Latvenergo and Eesti Energia AS - conducted a feasibility study concerning implementation of the new nuclear power plant project in Lithuania. It was concluded that the project is feasible to implement and was substantiated from the economic, technical, environmental and legal point of view.

The Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant (VNPP) project comprises construction of a new nuclear power plant and the related infrastructure in Lithuania. Upon implementation of the project, the shut down Ignalina NPP Units will be replaced by modern, safe and environmentally-friendly electric power production technology.

Considering the fact that Lithuania already had an operating nuclear power plant, as well as sufficient experience in developing nuclear energy infrastructure and maintaining high level of nuclear safety, this experience will be used when constructing Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant. The Visaginas NPP will be constructed next to the current Ignalina NPP, which is located on the south bank of Drukšiai Lake, six kilometres from the town of Visaginas and next to the border with Latvia and Belarus.

Joint stock company “Visagino atomine elektrine” (further – VAE) is responsible for the implementation of the preparatory works for construction of the new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. VAE is responsible for the comprehensive Visaginas NPP construction sites study and other project preparatory works that are necessary in order to have proper arrangements, after the establishment of project implementing company, to develop VNPP construction project.

VAE was established in August 2008 and took over the preparatory works, which were carried out by the Nuclear Energy Department of Lietuvos Energija AB established at the end of 2006. The implementation of the VNPP Project in Lithuania is supervised by the New NPP Project Implementation Supervision Committee chaired by the Minister of Energy.

In July 2007, the environmental impact assessment of the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania has begun. The impacts on general public and environment of the new NPP were evaluated and it was agreed by the Lithuanian regulatory authorities and coordinated with neighbouring Countries. In April 2009, the Ministry of Environment has taken a decision on the feasibility of the construction of nuclear power plant from environmental point of view that the construction and operation of new nuclear power plant with the power capacity up to 3400 MWel in the examined sites is permissible.

Supply of NPPs

The principle is that the main supplier of the Visaginas NPP technology will be chosen after contract signature between Lithuania, strategic investor to Visaginas NPP and regional partners from Estonia, Latvia and Poland.

Operation of NPPs

The Regulatory Authority granted an operating permit for each INPP unit. In accordance with the Operation Licenses conditions and regulation "Rules for issuance of permissions to start units after outage or short-term shutdowns", during operation period permits were obtained after each outage.

The main position for INPP is stated in clause 147 BSR-2.1.2-2010 that the principal document defining safe operation is the Technical Specification, which lays down main modes and functions of safe operation as well as general sequence the performance of all operations related to plant safety, and also specifies the limits and conditions of safe operation. The limits and conditions of safe operation shall be justified by design and/or other relevant documents".

For INPP, the limits and conditions of safe operation was set and justified in the Technical Safety Justification prepared by the plant Main Designer NIKIET and Scientific Adviser “Kurchatov Institute” and the General Designer (St. Petersburg, Russia). In the frames of in-depth safety assessments for INPP Unit 1 and Unit 2 - SAR-1 and SAR-2 respectively the limits and conditions of safe operation were reviewed and their correctness was confirmed.

Technical Specification - The basic document specifying the safety of INPP and determining the limits and conditions of safe operation - shall be reviewed every three years. If necessary, the relevant corrections are incorporated to the Technical Specification in case the norms, standards and regulations have changed in course of system and equipment modifications or operation experience of INPP. Each new issue of the Technical Specification or after each update of the Technical Specification it shall be endorsed by the Regulating authority of the Lithuanian Republic. Each new issue of the Technical Specification or after each update of the Technical Specification it shall be endorsed by the Regulating authority of the Lithuanian Republic.

As long as there is nuclear fuel in the reactor core or in the storage pools, INPP Units 1 and 2 are considered to be nuclear facilities. At this stage all decommissioning activities are to be carried out in accordance with the design requirements as well as the limits and conditions of safe operation.

Safety of Unit 1 decommissioning at the stages of reactor defueling and fuel removal from the pools is justified in Unit 1 DSAR for Defueling Stages 1 and 2, which was agreed by the Regulatory authority of the Republic of Lithuania in 2005. Unit 1 DSAR specifies the safety-related systems and components, which shall remain in operation during Unit 1 decommissioning.

In accordance with DSAR content of Technical Specification of Unit 1 was reduced and adapted for fuel removal from the core phase. After removal of spent fuel from the core at the end of 2009 the content Technical Specification was reduced once again and adapted for fuel removal from the storage pools. This activity included review of all relevant operation and maintenance procedures related to Unit 1 systems and components which remain in operation during stage 2 of Unit 1 defueling.

INPP Unit 2 decommissioning Safety Case covering reactor defueling and fuel removal from the pools stages is part of Unit 2 DSAR for Defueling Stages 1 and 2, which is currently being reviewed by the Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania.

During an operation of INPP units operational limits and conditions were changed when needed in accordance with specific safety cases. After shutdown of the units many changes are or will be done in accordance with DSAR.

Fuel cycle and waste management

Strategy on Radioactive Waste Management was approved by the Government of Lithuania in 2002. In 2008 the Strategy was revised. Compared with previous and revised strategies, there are no changes in main strategic. The difference is that the strategy has been restructured and some elements were reworded. This Strategy was approved to implement the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania for Radioactive Waste Management, which establishes the basic principles of Radioactive Waste Management.

The strategy has three main objectives: 1) Strive to achieve a high level in nuclear and radiation safety in management of spent fuel and radioactive waste; 2) To improve the radioactive waste management infrastructure, which shall be based on modern technologies; strive to minimize activity and volume of radioactive waste; 3) Informing the Lithuanian public to achieve a better understanding of the main radioactive waste management principals and achieve acceptance of waste management projects.

INPP has developed activities on implementation of the Regulation on the Pre-disposal Management of Radioactive Waste at the Nuclear Power Plant issued by VATESI. Thus, implementation of those activities enables INPP to modernize radioactive waste management to treat radioactive waste considering new requirements, which take into account interdependence of all radioactive waste management phases and new classification of waste.

The General Requirements for Dry Type Storage for Spent Nuclear Fuel issued by VATESI sets out general requirements for spent fuel storage. These requirements as well as Regulation on the Pre-disposal Management of Radioactive Waste at the Nuclear Power Plant are under revision taking into account WENRA safety reference levels and new IAEA recommendations.

The intermediate nuclear fuel storage facility is located on the INPP site in the distance of 1 km of the available plant units and 400 meters of Drukšiai Lake. 20 CASTOR and 88 CONSTOR RBMK-1500 casks with 51 spent nuclear fuel assemblies in each were stored in this facility up to 2009. According to accomplished modernization that extended the capacity of the spent nuclear fuel storage facility, at the beginning of 2009 VATESI gave permission to INPP to place in it additionally 12 CONSTOR RBMK-1500 casks. 10 CONSTOR RBMK-1500 casks with spent nuclear fuel were transported to the spent nuclear fuel storage facility at the period of 2009 and. The total amount of stored casks - 120 and the total quantity of spent nuclear fuel assemblies accommodated in the casks - 6120.

Under the necessity to handling and store of the other approximately 17000 spent nuclear fuel assemblies from closed INPP, it is obvious that existing spent fuel storage facility is not sufficient. At 2003 Lithuanian Government decided to construct a new dry type spent nuclear fuel storage facility (project B1) designed for handling and store of the other spent nuclear fuel assemblies.

In addition to this new storage facility, the project B1 includes all necessary spent nuclear fuel retrieval, packaging, sealing operations at Reactor Units, transfer between Reactor Units and new storage facility, and other equipment appropriate to the chosen design solution and required for the safe removal of the all spent nuclear fuel (including damaged and experimental fuel assemblies) from storage pools and collection of fuel debris from the bottom of storage pool.

The new intermediate nuclear fuel storage facility site is located in the distance of 0.6 km of INPP to the south. The contractor of the project B1 is a Consortium of German companies GNS and Nukem Technologies GmbH. The GNS has enhanced the design of CONSTOR RBMK-1500 casks. The CONSTOR RBMK1500/M2 casks are designed for the storage of intact, damaged and experimental fuel assemblies. Typically this new cask consists of 2 baskets and can accommodate up to 91 spent nuclear fuel assemblies. Fuel assemblies containing leaking fuel rods but having no mechanical damage are loaded in a mixed arrangement with intact fuel assemblies in CONSTOR RBMK1500/M2 casks, but the number of leaking fuel assemblies per cask is limited to 15 with respect to potential residual water in leaking fuel rods. Fuel assemblies with mechanical damages and experimental fuel assemblies are additionally canned in cartridges. Mechanical filters of the cartridges ensure de-watering and vacuum drying in the cask, but prevent fuel particles from escaping from the cartridges. The new spent new fuel storage facility, according to the project, is designed to accommodate 200 CONSTOR RBMK-1500/M2 casks with spent nuclear fuel assemblies and store it for 50 years. The facility also will be equipped with a Hot Cell which provides the possibility of spent nuclear fuel repackaging and inspection during the storage period. It is foreseen to construct new intermediate nuclear fuel storage facility until 2011.

Solid radioactive waste at INPP is segregated into three groups by the surface dose rate, according to standards that were applied in a former USSR and applicable at INPP. The solid waste at INPP is dumped into reinforced concrete compartments in storage buildings No. 155, 155/1, 157, 157/1 located on INPP site. There is no reprocessing of solid waste before it is dumped. All the waste from these facilities will be retrieved, characterized and conditioned according new requirements mentioned before.

Liquid radioactive waste at INPP is collected in special tanks, from where it is directed to evaporating facilities. The concentrate is processed and conditioned in the bitumen solidification facility, i.e. mixed with bitumen. The bitumen compound then is pumped into a special storage facility (build. 158). The building is also located on INPP site. According to the Plan of Transfer of Bituminised Waste Storage Facility (build. 158) to Final Disposal Facility INPP shall perform long term safety assessment. If an outcome of this assessment is negative, build. 158 will remain as a storage facility and INPP would develop actions plan of facility decommissioning including waste retrieval. If positive then this storage facility will be transferred to disposal facility.

Spent ion-exchange resins are stored in special tanks. In 2006 the cementation facility and storage facility for cemented waste started operation. The ion-exchange resins from INPP water purification and liquid waste treatment systems together with filter aid (Perlite) as one waste mixture type and solid particle sediments from evaporator concentrate also with filter aid (Perlite) as another waste mixture type is to be solidified in cement which is poured into drums and put in storage container (waste packages) in order to reduce any further risk associated with the liquid waste storage in tanks and to assure safe storage and management of solidified waste. A new storage facility for cemented waste is designed for 60 years storage. Conditioned waste will be disposed in near surface disposal facility.

Modernization of waste management includes retrieval from old storage facilities, characterization, treatment and conditioning of waste taking into account disposal routes. Before disposal waste will stored in new storage facilities. In new treatment facilities operational and decommissioning waste will be managed. It is assumed that retrieval of the waste and operation of new treatment facilities could start in 2012–2013.

After storage the waste will be disposed of in disposal facilities. It is envisaged to construct two disposal facilities - one for very low level and other for low and intermediate level radioactive waste.

An underground storage facility for low and intermediate level institutional waste, located at Maišiagala near Vilnius, was in operation since 1963 till 1989. RATA is operator of the closed storage facility. Currently RATA has a license for managing of the institutional waste and transporting to storage facilities located at Ignalina NPP.


2.7 Research and development

2.7.1 R&D organizations and institutes

Institute of Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Lithuanian Energy Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, State Institute of Information Technology, ITECHA JSC, the Scientific Research Center of Electromagnetic Compatibility and Institute of Chemistry – all these organizations are involved in nuclear or nuclear related activities, as the Technical Support Organisations mainly. They provide VATESI with expertise and necessary technical-scientific support during safety reviews, verification of safety justifications, drafting of norms and regulations. Some of these TSOs are also involved in international projects implemented through international and bilateral cooperation.

Lithuanian Energy Institute performs wide range of nuclear-related activities:

Activities of Nuclear and Environmental Radioactivity Research Laboratory at the Institute of Physics are development and application of nuclear spectroscopy methods, radionuclide metrology and standardization, investigations in environmental radioactivity, radionuclide tracer studies, radio-ecological monitoring and dose assessment.

The State Information Technology Institute designs information systems, software and automatic control system elements of computer systems at Ignalina NPP.

Apart from above mentioned institutes, there are some other technical support organizations. As the first step to develop better technical support, the Centre for Non-Destructive Testing at Kaunas University of Technology and the Laboratory of Welding and Material Analysis at Vilnius Technical University were created. With the aid of the European Commission, these facilities were equipped with modern instrumentation.

2.7.2 International co-operation and initiatives

Lithuania has or had multilateral and bilateral projects, mostly concerning safety of nuclear power plants, with several highly developed Western countries, including Sweden, Germany, the USA, the UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Finland and Japan.

The main multilateral projects were the TACIS founded International RBMK Safety Review Consortium, Lord Marshall's Users Group for Soviet Designed Reactors and the IAEA extra budgetary programme on RBMK reactors. One of the most important projects for Lithuania was the international project “Safety of Design Solutions and Operation of NPP’s with RBMK Reactors“ covering a broad range of safety related topics with Unit 2 of the Ignalina NPP used as a reference plant.

The BARSELINA project (1992-2001) – level 1 and 2 probabilistic safety assessment of the Ignalina NPP conducted by Sweden, Lithuania and Russia. At different stages of the project the study was reviewed by USA (1994) and IAEA (2000 and 2001) experts. This project provides a unified basis for the assessment of severe accident risks for RBMK type reactors and the preparation of remedial measures. Some of the improvements highlighted by PSA have already been implemented at the Ignalina NPP.

Another project of the Lithuanian-Swedish bilateral programme was the application of modern non-destructive testing (NDT) systems for in-service inspection of the pressure boundary system. One other project is the preparation of an "Overall Plan for Radioactive Waste Management" in Lithuania by Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Co., SKB. Project “Fire and flooding protection” helped to improve the whole fire protection system at Ignalina NPP.

Performance of SAR (1995-1996), RSR (1995-1997), the review of SAR-2 (2001-2003), safety analyses recommended by SAR, RSR and Ignalina Safety Panel (1997-1999), Safety Improvement Program SIP-2, which was started in 1997, should be mentioned as a good examples of the multilateral collaboration.

Level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment of the Ignalina NPP (2000-2001) – the study had been conducted by joint Lithuanian-Sweden team and reviewed by UK experts. IAEA IPSART mission to review this study was completed in October 2001.

In December 1994 an agreement was signed between European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Republic of Lithuania for safety improvement at Ignalina NPP. Nuclear Safety Project for Ignalina Units 1 and 2 (RBMK 1500) was dedicated to reduce the seriousness of operational and design deficiencies. First comprehensive Safety Analysis Report (SAR) – investigation and analysis of factors that could limit a safe operation of the plant – was prepared as a part of a Grant Agreement. Based on the recommendations of the SAR Ignalina NPP has developed extensive Safety Improvement Programme.

On 5 April 2001, a Framework Agreement was signed between the Republic of Lithuania and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development relating to the activities of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund in Lithuania for the decommissioning of Unit 1 of Ignalina NPP. The European Commission supported the project “Assistance in the Enhancement of Lithuanian Technical Safety Organizations Capability to Support Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority”, which enables future development of the Metal Control Laboratory.

International Atomic Energy Agency offers a lot of courses for nuclear specialists’ training. One of the most important national Technical Co-operation projects - Systematic approach to training (SAT) for NPP personnel, completed in 2000, helped to strengthen safety and reliability of the Ignalina NPP.

There have been implemented a number of projects with the USA financed by the Department of Energy and USAID framework of Nuclear Safety Assistance Programme for Lithuania. The Ignalina Source Book was prepared and printed in 1994 in close co-operation with the University of Maryland. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) from the USA together with Nuclear Installation Safety Laboratory have developed the RELAP5 model for the Ignalina NPP. BNL also assisted with the development of the Ignalina NPP Analyser, and the University of Maryland is conducting an assessment of the Accident Confinement System using the software code CONTAIN. Other project with USA helped to develop western style Configuration Management programme for Ignalina NPP and provided plant staff technical support. This Project provided Ignalina NPP with DC Power Supply System consisting of safety class batteries, battery racks and switch board. One of projects, “Symptom-Based Emergency Operating Instructions (Russian abbreviation – SOAI) and management) Support”, in Nuclear Safety Assistance Programme with US is very useful for bringing safety level of Ignalina NPP to internationally approved standards.

Co-operation in nuclear safety improvement at the Ignalina NPP with Japan specialists started in 1994. In the frame of the Agreement of Co-operation for Safety Improvement at the Ignalina NPP signed in 1996, Science and Technology Agency of Japan started two big projects: “Co-operation on plant operation management” and “Co-operation on fuel channel integrity”. In November 1998 Japanese experts installed at Ignalina NPP a data server system as result of the first project. The second project includes problems of inspection equipment for oxidized layer thickness of fuel channel and investigation of corrosion of fuel channel.

GRS (Germany) and Lithuanian Energy Institute are involved in the co-operative project of Analysis of Safety Aspects of Ignalina NPP, including the studies of neutron dynamics and thermal hydraulics. A compact simulator for operator training of normal and accident scenarios was developed by CORYS (France) and TRACTEBEL (Belgium). Canada mainly provides educational and training courses in the formation of organizations, safety design, waste management, maintenance and inspection of NPP’s. The Lithuanian-Swedish co-operative project of seismic evaluation of the Ignalina NPP is finished. A seismic network is placed in and 30 km around the plant. The British authority AEA has launched two Ignalina specific programs: checking the reliability of the Ignalina ultrasonic inspection devices on British mock-ups during the plant operation and a leak before break analysis, including the use of a code treating a transition weld. A Swiss consortium of independent engineers evaluated the design concepts for interim storage of spent fuel elements. Project on radiation monitoring was implemented together with DS&D (USA).

Collaboration agreement between JRC Institute for Energy and Lithuanian Energy Institute signed in 2006.

Lithuanian Energy Institute and American Nuclear Society have signed a “Memorandum of cooperation between American Nuclear Society and Lithuanian Energy Institute” in February 2007. The cooperation memorandum was prolonged for another five-year period in February 2011.

The very significant project “Development of guidelines on the management of the beyond design accidents at Ignalina NPP” was performed during period 2007-2008. This project was coordinated by the consortium Jacobsen Engineering Ltd (United Kingdom), SCIENTECH Inc. (USA), and Volian Enterprises Inc. (USA) and sponsored by the UK Department of Trading and Industry.

In 2009 Lithuanian Energy Institute was accepted to European Technical Support Organisation Network (ETSON) with core members (at that time) IRSN (France), GRS (Germany), Bel V (Belgium), ÚJV (Czech Republic), VTT (Finland). In 2009 members of ETSON decided to create European Nuclear Safety Training and Tutoring Institute (ENSTTI). Thus, in 2009 four European TSOs (IRSN in France, GRS in Germany, UJV in the Czech Republic and LEI in Lithuania) have created ENSTTI. The Institute will offer short applied training sessions and longer courses based on tutorials for university graduates and for those with some professional experience in the nuclear sector. Its focus will be on transmitting European research and assessment know-how in the fields of nuclear safety and radiation protection.

Governing Board of Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform (SNETP) accepted Lithuanian Energy Institute to the Platform in 2010. SNETP promotes research, development and demonstration of the nuclear fission technologies.

Lithuanian Energy Institute actively participated and participates in international collaboration projects:

6th Framework Programme:

7th Framework Programme:

IAEA projects:

In 2007 consortium Pöyry Energy Oy (Finland)-LEI (Lithuania) were implementing a project “Preparation of environmental impact assessment programme for new nuclear power plant”, where the scope of the new nuclear power plant environmental impact assessment guidelines was determined. The specialists of the Lithuanian Energy Institute participated in the preparation of Environmental impact assessment report, which was approved by the Ministry of Environment.

Pöyry Energy Oy – LEI consortium implemented a project “Preparation of environmental impact assessment report for new nuclear power plant”. The specialists of the Lithuanian Energy Institute participated in the preparation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which was submitted to the EIA. In the report of the EIA, possible environmental impacts of the construction and exploitation of new nuclear power plant were assessed in cooperation with other Finish and Lithuanian institutions (Institute of Botany, institute of Ecology and National Public Health Surveillance Laboratory). The possible effect of the planned economic activity on the components of the environment, such as water, air, soil, biodiversity, landscape, cultural heritage objects, social and economic environment and public health, was analysed. A great deal of attention was devoted to numerical simulations of Drukšiai lake water temperature and the spread of radionuclides emitted during an emergency, and to estimations of the impact on lake ecosystem and radiological impact of public health during normal operation as well as during design basis and severe accident. The possible international impact of the new power plant to the Republics of Latvia and Belarus was also assessed. According to the EIA report of 2009, positive evaluations of the responsible institutions were made concerning the planed economic activity and, therefore, following this report, Ministry of Environment has decided on the possibilities of new nuclear power plant construction in Lithuania.

In 2009, under the agreement Assessment of Potential Visaginas NPP Construction Sites in Respect of External Events between JSC Visagino NPP and LEI, the tasks on external factors (such as human-induced events, meteorological phenomena, site flooding) assessment were performed. The main objective of this completed project was to evaluate the suitability of potential sites for Visaginas NPP construction, following the requirements of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

A number of Ignalina NPP decommissioning projects are implemented:

Starting from 2009 Lithuanian Energy Institute participated in European Commission financed project “Support for Armenian Nuclear Safety Authority”. The aim of the project is to provide support for Armenian organization ANRA regulating nuclear safety in order to ensure nuclear and radiation safety in the country. The implementation of the project is aimed at the following objectives: to support and strengthen national Armenian nuclear safety regulatory system, to promote an effective safety culture following the principles of Convention on Nuclear Safety and to develop the regulating methodology and practice applied in the European countries. The LEI representatives are working on one of the tasks of this project: the development of ANRA employees training system.

A number of Lithuanian Energy Institute experts participate in IAEA training courses as experts delegated by this Agency.

The following publications were published by IAEA:

Antila M., Dusic M., Fil N., Glaeser H., Hajra P., Hortal J., Mandowara S.L., Misak J., Nemes I., Polyakov A., Prosek A., Rimkevicius S., Stanev I., Tkac A., Victorov A., Vymazal P., Wellens B. Safety margins of operating reactors: analysis of uncertainties and implications for decision making // IAEA-TECDOC-1332. ISBN 92-0-118102-7 Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2003. 145 p.

Šmaižys A., Poškas P. Possibility for BUC implementation in RBMK-1500 fuel dual purpose storage casks // Practices and developments in spent fuel burnup credit applications. IAEA-TECDOC-1378. ISBN 92–0–111203–3, ISSN 1011–4289. Vienna, Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2003.

Alzbutas R. et al. Advanced nuclear power plant design options to cope with external events // IAEA-TECDOC-1487. ISBN 92-0-100506-7. Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2006. 221 p.

Alsop C.J., Alzbutas R. et al. Determining the quality of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for applications in nuclear power plants // IAEA-TECDOC-1511. ISBN 92-0-108706-3, ISSN 1011-4289. Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2006. 172 p.

Aarna I., Anderson J., Bader J.F., Balodis M., Bui D.-T., Dravnieks D., Galinis A., Gavars V., Jankauskas A., Kisel E., Kizhakkekara J., Klavs G., Linkevics O., Miškinis V., Oim F., Piesliakas E., Pihlak U., Ploompuu P., Rogner H.-H., Rudi U., Soosaar S., Strubegger M., Stuklis I., Šulga D., Tarvydas D., Toth F.L., Vares V., Vilemas J., Weisser D., Zlatnansky J. Analyses of Energy Supply Options and Security of Energy Supply in the Baltic States // Vienna, Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2007. 323 p. IAEA-TECDOC-1541, ISBN 92–0–101107–5. ISSN 1011-4289.

Poškas P., Brazauskaite A., Kilda R., Narkunas E., Šmaižys A., Zujus R. Disposal aspects of low and intermediate level Ignalina NPP decommissioning waste // Disposal aspects of low and intermediate level decommissioning waste: results of a coordinated research Project 2005-2006. Vienna, Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2007. IAEA-TECDOC-1572, ISBN 978-92-0-109107-9, ISSN 1011-4289.

Alzbutas R. et al. Development and application of level 1 probabilistic safety assessment for Nuclear Power Plants // IAEA safety standards series No. SSG-3. Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2010. 195 p. ISBN 978-92-0-114509-3.

Alzbutas R. et al. Development and application of level 2 probabilistic safety assessment for Nuclear Power Plants // IAEA safety standards series No. SSG-4. Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2010. 82 p. ISBN 978-92-0-102210-3.

Baltušnikas A., Grybenas A., Kriukiene R., Makarevicius V. et al. Delayed hydride cracking of zirconium alloy fuel cladding // Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2010. IAEA-TECDOC series. 68 p. ISBN 978-92-0-108610-5.

Remeikis V., Ancius D., Plukis A., Plukiene R., Ridikas D., Šmaižys A., Narkunas E., Poškas P. Current status of the radiological characterization of the irradiated graphite from RBMK-1500 reactor in Lithuania // Progress in radioactive graphite waste management. IAEA-TECDOC-1647. Austria: International Atomic Energy Agency, 2010, p. 57-76. ISBN 978-92-0-106610-7.

International Co-operation for Visaginas NPP construction

On January 2006, in the conference in Vilnius the representatives of all three Baltic States discussed the implementation of study for construction of a new Power Plant in the region. On February 2006 at the meeting in Trakai, the Prime Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia signed a communiqué which invited state-owned energy companies in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to invest in the design and construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania on the basis of agreed terms and conditions applicable to each party involved. On the basis of this communiqué, on 8 March 2006, the heads of Lietuvos Energija, Eesti Energia and Latvenergo during their meeting in Ignalina signed a memorandum of understanding on the preparation for construction of a new nuclear reactor in Lithuania. On 8 December 2006, Poland was invited to join the project.

The construction of the new nuclear power plant, in close cooperation with other Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Poland, is stipulated in the National Energy Strategy, approved by the Resolution of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Seimas) of the Republic of Lithuania No. X-1046, dated January 18, 2007. In 2007, the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Seimas) has passed the Law on Nuclear Power Plant that provides for a political commitment to build a new nuclear power plant in the country. Further important strategic directions regarding the new build are outlined in the Government resolution No. 300, adopted in April, 2009.


2.8 Human resources development

Since nuclear energy is an integrated branch of the economy, it requires knowledge, competent and experienced specialists employed in this industry.

Evaluation of Depending on the technology of the nuclear power plant, up to 450 well-trained specialists will be needed at the Project Development Company and Operator of Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant. A portion of the vacancies can be taken by specialists who are presently employed at Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. However, they should account for no more than 30-40 percent of the total number of needed staff.

In line with provisions of the plan for the implementation of The National Energy Strategy, approved by Resolution No X-1046 of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania (Seimas) dated 18 January 2007, a national plan for the education of nuclear energy specialists has to be adopted in 2011. When implementing this plan, national priority has to be given to ensuring the timely preparation of specialists for work in the new nuclear power plant. It should also be noted that since 2008 there are also already ongoing new programs for preparation of the nuclear energy specialists at Vilnius University and Kaunas University of Technology, while Kaunas University of Technology is preparing the specialists in thermal engineering since 1991.

On 29 July 2008, a new structure of VATESI was approved. Three departments – the Administration, Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection – were established at VATESI. The Administration Department consists of the Legal Affairs and Personnel Division, Information Technologies Division and Office Services Division. The Nuclear Safety Department consists of the Safety Analysis Division, Division of Systems and Components, Operational Experience Analysis Division and Surveillance Division. The structure of the Radiation Protection Department comprises the Radioactive Waste Management, Decommissioning, Transportation and Radiation Protection Divisions. In addition to that, four Divisions are functioning at VATESI which are directly subordinate to the Head of VATESI. They are the Finance and Accounting Division, Project Management Division, International Communication and Public Relations Division and the Division of Nuclear Materials Control and Physical Protection.

State Enterprise Radioactive Waste Management Agency RATA currently has 18 employees. It consists of two divisions: Radioactive Waste Disposal Division and Small Producers Waste Management Division. The first division is responsible for planning of new disposal facilities, implementing of waste acceptance provisions as well as for future operation of the disposal facilities, while the second is engaged in collection, transportation and treatment of institutional waste and control of closed storage facility at Maišiagala.



3. NATIONAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS

3.1 Safety authority and the licensing process

The main role of State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate - VATESI is to perform the state regulation and supervision of safety at nuclear facilities in order to protect the public and environment against harmful effects of ionizing radiation. VATESI is a governmental institution, established in 1991, VATESI Head directly reports to the Prime Minister. The main responsibilities of VATESI:

For implementation of these tasks VATESI issues nuclear safety, security and safeguards requirements and rules, issues licenses to the activities related with nuclear safety, controls adherence to the requirements set out in licences conditions, safety requirements and rules.

VATESI is also empowered to take enforcement measures, such as: suspend or revoke licence, put a fine for violation of safety rules or licence conditions, suspend operation of the nuclear power plant or discontinue its activities.

Current legislation in nuclear field is based on the Law on Nuclear Energy which was adopted by Lithuanian Parliament in 1996. The Law inter alia defines the principal objectives of state regulation of nuclear energy, rights and responsibilities of the state authorities, obligations of operator, and basics of the procedures of licensing as well. As provided in the Article 25 of the Law, without a license issued in the manner prescribed by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, it is prohibited:

1. to design, construct and reconstruct nuclear facilities, installations and equipment;

2. to operate nuclear facilities;

3. to store nuclear and radioactive materials and their waste;

4. to decommission a nuclear facility;

5. to dispose nuclear and radioactive materials and their waste;

6. to acquire, possess and transport nuclear materials;

7. to acquire, possess and transport radioactive materials.

The Regulation on Licensing of the Activities in Nuclear Energy, which was issued by Government of Lithuania in 1998, establishes procedures for licensing as well as the main licensing documents related to nuclear safety, radiation safety and physical protection. More detailed list of the documents is established in the requirements and rules of the regulatory bodies.

NUCLEAR SAFETY AUTHORIZATION PROCESS

Article 3 of the Law on Nuclear Energy provides the legal principles of activities in nuclear energy. It stipulates that nuclear activities in the Republic of Lithuania are subject to a license issued by an authorized state institution. If nuclear activities are conducted without a license or in contravention of the laws of the Republic of Lithuania or its international obligations, they shall be held illegal and shall incur legal responsibility as provided by the laws of the Republic of Lithuania. According to the Law, the operator of a nuclear facility shall be responsible for conducting nuclear activities in compliance with the provisions of the Law on Nuclear Energy and regulatory acts of the Republic of Lithuania. Competent authorities issuing licenses for an activity specified in the Law on Nuclear Energy must develop a system of requirements that guarantee nuclear safety, radiation safety and physical protection, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, a lawful use of nuclear materials and waste management. Decisions taken by officers of state control and supervision bodies within the scope of their competence shall be binding on all natural and legal entities and shall be implemented strictly within the established time limits and in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

On the 25th of November 2009, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania by its Resolution No. 1609 approved the Concept of the Law on Nuclear Safety of the Republic of Lithuania. This Law is intended for strengthening the regulatory system of nuclear safety and for setting more detailed rules of the state regulation and supervision of nuclear safety in nuclear installations, use of nuclear materials and materials of nuclear cycle, transportation, management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, including more explicitly defined system of licensing and other forms of authorization, enforcement measures, etc., the functions and responsibilities of the nuclear safety regulatory institution along with the functions and responsibilities of other state authorities and offices in exercising administrative procedures, the functions and responsibilities of organizations operating nuclear facilities and other institutions and offices the activities thereof are related to the assurance of nuclear safety. As a constituent part of the nuclear safety measures, the Law will also regulate the radiation safety in nuclear installations, use of nuclear materials and materials of nuclear fuel cycle, transportation, management of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. Adoption of this Law together with amendments of Nuclear Energy Law and other related legislation by Lithuanian Parliament is foreseen in 2011.


3.2 Main national laws and regulations in nuclear power

Lithuania has a developed legal infrastructure for nuclear energy regulation, however taking in to account the objectives of the National Energy Strategy a thorough review of this infrastructure was performed and legal reform introducing a more transparent legal environment in order to facilitate smooth implementation of new NPP project and decommissioning of Ignalina NPP has been initiated.

• Law on Nuclear Energy, adopted on November 14, 1996.

• Law on Radiation Protection, adopted on January 12, 1999.

• Law on the Management of Radioactive Waste, adopted on May 20, 1999.

• Law on Environmental Impact Assessment of the Proposed Economic Activity, adopted on August 15, 1996 (new edition adopted on June 21, 2005).

• Law in the Control of Strategic Goods, adopted on July 5, 1995 (new edition adopted on April 29, 2004).

• Law on Environmental Protection, adopted on January 21, 1992.

• Law on Waste Management, adopted on June 16, 1998 (new edition adopted on July 1, 2002).

• Law on Civil Protection, adopted on December 15, 1998 (new edition adopted on December 22, 2009).

• Law on Energy, adopted on May 16, 2002.

• Law on Electricity, adopted on July 20, 2000 (new edition adopted in July 10, 2004).

• Law on Nuclear Power Plant, adopted on June 28, 2007.

• Law on the Decommissioning of Unit 1 at the State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, adopted on May 2, 2000 establishes the legal basis for the decommissioning of the First Unit of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. It states that preparatory activities for the decommissioning of the First Unit of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant shall end no later than 1 January 2005. The exact date of its final shutdown was established by the Government (The Resolution No. 1491 of November 25, 2004, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Date of Final Shutdown of First Unit the Ignalina nuclear Power Plant), following its consideration of a decommissioning programme and a decommissioning plan, including the future financing of such decommissioning by the National Decommissioning Fund and sources of international financial assistance.

• Law on the State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Fund, adopted on July 12, 2001 provides for the establishment of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Fund. This Fund is financed in particular from a percentage of the profit made by Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant through electricity production; voluntary contributions from foreign countries, international organizations, financial institutions and legal entities of Lithuania; and income gained from the sale of property during decommissioning. The assets of the Fund is used to finance technical and social projects related to the decommissioning of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant; management, final disposal and long term storage of radioactive waste and spent fuel from Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant; and compensation for nuclear damage. It shall be noted that due to early termination of operation of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, the amount of funds collected to the national Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Fund is not sufficient to cover full expenses of decommissioning and radioactive waste management of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant. In accordance with European Union Treaty Protocol No. 4, European Commission provides financial assistance for decommissioning and radioactive waste management. Financing is performed via International Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Decommissioning Fund administrated by EBRD and Ignalina Programme administrated by national Central Project Management Agency.

• Law on the Enforcement of Application of the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage of May 21, 1963 and the Joint Protocol Relating to the Application of the Vienna Convention and the Paris Convention of 21 September 1988, adopted on 30 November 1993. The Law gives the main articles of Vienna Convention and Joint Protocol the validity of the law with direct applicability in courts.

• Law on Corporate Income Tax, adopted December 20, 2001, which includes the provision on additional deductions allowed by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

Resolutions of the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania

• Program on Safe Exploitation of State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, approved by the Resolution of the Parliament of Republic of Lithuania No. VIII-1967 of September 26, 2000.

• National Energy Strategy, approved by the Resolution of the Parliament of Republic of Lithuania No. X-1046 of January 18, 2007.

Resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania

• The Resolution No. 716 of August 8, 1994, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of the Procedure for the Transportation of Secret Cargoes to the Republic of Lithuania and out of the Republic of Lithuania (new edition adopted January 30, 2002).

• The Resolution No. 718 of May 19, 1995, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Restrictions of the Import, Export and Transit of Particular Items (Goods) in the Republic of Lithuania.

• The Resolution No. 172 of February 19, 2001, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Programme of the Decommissioning of the First Unit the Ignalina nuclear Power Plant.

• The Resolution No. 1873 of December 3, 2002, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval or the Procedure of Approval of the Project of Construction or Reconstruction of the Nuclear Power Plant.

• The Resolution No. 932 of July 22, 2004, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval or the Procedure of Licensing of Export, Import, Transit and Brokering of the Strategic Goods and The Procedure of Control of the Strategic Goods.

• The Resolution No. 1491 of November 25, 2004, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Date of Final Shutdown of First Unit the Ignalina nuclear Power Plant.

• The Resolution No. 860 of September 3, 2008, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of the Radioactive Waste Management Strategy.

• The Resolution No. 1448 of November 9, 2009, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Final Shutdown of Second Unit the Ignalina nuclear Power Plant.

• The Resolution No. 300 of April 22, 2009, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Strategic Aspects of the Implementation of the Project of the New Nuclear Power Plant.

• The Resolution No. 1425 of September 29, 2010, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of the Programme for year 2010-2014 of the Decommissioning of the State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

• Resolution No. 1014 of July 1, 2002, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of Statute of the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate and the Statue of the Council of the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate;

• Resolution No. 103 of January 27, 1998, of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania on the Approval of Regulations for Licensing of Nuclear Power Related Activities.

Requirements of the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Body

State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) adopts requirements and rules on the issues of the safe use of nuclear energy, the use of nuclear materials, their transportation, their accounting and control, as well as nuclear, radioactive materials used in nuclear energy, as well as waste storage and disposal.

The protection of general public, workers of nuclear facilities and environment from the possible radiation impact is regulated by the following laws, norms and standards:

Laws of the Republic of Lithuania

Resolutions of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania

Orders of the Minister of Health

Hygiene standards

Normative documents of environmental protection of Lithuania

Orders of director of the radiation protection centre



4. CURRENT ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENTS IN NUCLEAR POWER

4.1. Energy policy

In 2009, the EU adopted the Third Energy Package, a package of legislative measures aimed at liberalising EU energy markets. Based on the ownership unbundling requirements of the Third Energy Package, Lithuania is successfully reforming the electricity sector by separating transmission from generation and supply activities. In 2010, four blocks of energy companies were established (consisting of energy transmission, production, distribution and maintenance activities) and during 2011 the reform of electricity sector will be completed. The ownership unbundling will increase the overall efficiency of the electricity system, prevent discrimination against new market participants willing to connect to the grid, optimize the use and development of infrastructure, incentivise economic investment and ensure competitive prices for electricity consumers.

The importance of Visaginas NPP also is reflected in the new structure of electricity sector – new NPP project is separate part in line with production, transmission and distribution activities (Fig. 8).

FIG. 8. Lithuanian electricity sector after implementation of EU Third Energy Package

Ownership unbundling will also be carried out in the gas sector. Ownership unbundling, following the EU legislation, will help in creating competition and raising the transparency level in this sector by separating dominant vertical monopolies. It is also an instrument to create a functioning regional market with an alternative gas supply. The Government of Lithuania in February, 2011, has agreed to use ownership unbundling as a way to implement the Third EU Energy Package in the gas sector, creating legal preconditions for this reform. The final legal conditions should be laid by the Parliament and it is expected to be done by the first half of 2011.

4.2 Privatization and deregulation

Lithuanian electricity market will be fully liberalized for all consumers by 2015. This target will be achieved gradually (year by year) expanding the market share without regulated electricity tariffs. The proportion of regulated electricity tariffs is expected to be following: 65% in 2010; 55% in 2011; 45% in 2012; 35% in 2013. The reduction of the part of regulated electricity tariffs will be completely finalized in 2015.

The implementation of the Third Energy Package also increases the need for the reform of regulatory environment. The Agency for infrastructure regulation is planned to be developed. This Agency will carry out the responsibilities of multi-sector regulatory body by merging the control of competences of energy, prices and communications regulation. As a consequence of the reform, three separate regulatory agencies – National Control Commission for Prices and Energy, Communications Regulatory Authority and State Energy Inspectorate under the Ministry of Energy is planned to be merged. This Agency would ensure more efficient regulation, transparency, more regulatory independence, better regulatory competences and one consolidated approach towards regulation of infrastructure.

4.3 Role of the government in the nuclear R&D

The first Lithuanian text-books in Nuclear Engineering were published; seminars, conferences and different meetings together with the post graduates of the secondary schools organized; the articles in the popular journals were published; a continuation of studies in the foreign countries organized; additional scholarship for Nuclear engineering students; guarantees of employment; changed training programs from operational needs to decommissioning needs and etc.

4.4 Safety and waste management issues

Many safety features were introduced in Ignalina NPP in period from 1990 till end of 2009, when both units of the plant were permanently shutdown. The most important features, which were covered by safety improvement programs (SIP) are as follows:

Licensing Ignalina NPP according standards of West countries, including of preparation of Safety Analysis Report

Performance of Probabilistic safety analysis on Ignalina NPP

Modifications of nuclear fuel and control rods

Improvements of operational safety due to improvements of nondestructive testing, seals for pressure tubes, routine maintenance instruments and equipment, radiation monitors, upgrading of design and maintenance documentation etc.

Implementation of a full-scope simulator

Improvement of information computer system TITAN

Implementation of additional emergency protection system

Implementation of secondary shutdown system (DSS) in Unit 2

Implementation of symptom-based emergency operating instructions (SOAI) and management of the beyond design accidents (RUZA)

Current task of Ignalina NPP is to ensure safe decommissioning of the plant and performance of linked projects such as to build up storages and repositories for radioactive waste. More comprehensive information can be found in national reports on Convention of Nuclear Safety as well as Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management.

Strategy on Radioactive Waste Management was approved by the Government of Lithuania in 2002. In 2008 the Strategy was revised. Compared with previous and revised strategies, there are no changes in main strategic. The difference is that the strategy has been restructured and some elements were reworded. This Strategy was approved to implement the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania for Radioactive Waste Management, which establishes the basic principles of Radioactive Waste Management.

The strategy has three main objectives: 1) Strive to achieve a high level in nuclear and radiation safety in management of spent fuel and radioactive waste; 2) To improve the radioactive waste management infrastructure, which shall be based on modern technologies; strive to minimize activity and volume of radioactive waste; 3) Informing the Lithuanian public to achieve a better understanding of the main radioactive waste management principals and achieve acceptance of waste management projects.

INPP has developed activities on implementation of the Regulation on the Pre-disposal Management of Radioactive Waste at the Nuclear Power Plant issued by VATESI. Thus, implementation of those activities enables INPP to modernize radioactive waste management to treat radioactive waste considering new requirements, which take into account interdependence of all radioactive waste management phases and new classification of waste.

The General Requirements for Dry Type Storage for Spent Nuclear Fuel issued by VATESI sets out general requirements for spent fuel storage. These requirements as well as Regulation on the Predisposal Management of Radioactive Waste at the Nuclear Power Plant are under revision taking into account WENRA safety reference levels and new IAEA recommendations.

Solid radioactive waste at INPP is segregated into three groups by the surface dose rate, according to standards that were applied in a former USSR and applicable at INPP. The solid waste at INPP is dumped into reinforced concrete compartments in storage buildings No. 155, 155/1, 157, 157/1 located on INPP site. There is no reprocessing of solid waste before it is dumped. All the waste from these facilities will be retrieved, characterized and conditioned according new requirements mentioned before.

Liquid radioactive waste at INPP is collected in special tanks, from where it is directed to evaporating facilities. The concentrate is processed and conditioned in the bitumen solidification facility, i.e. mixed with bitumen. The bitumen compound then is pumped into a special storage facility (build. 158). The building is also located on INPP site. According to the Plan of Transfer of Bituminised Waste Storage Facility (build. 158) to Final Disposal Facility INPP shall perform long term safety assessment. If an outcome of this assessment is negative, build. 158 will remain as a storage facility and INPP would develop actions plan of facility decommissioning including waste retrieval. If positive then this storage facility will be transferred to disposal facility.

Spent ion-exchange resins are stored in special tanks. In 2006 the cementation facility and storage facility for cemented waste started operation. The ion-exchange resins from INPP water purification and liquid waste treatment systems together with filter aid (Perlite) as one waste mixture type and solid particle sediments from evaporator concentrate also with filter aid (Perlite) as another waste mixture type is to be solidified in cement which is poured into drums and put in storage container (waste packages) in order to reduce any further risk associated with the liquid waste storage in tanks and to assure safe storage and management of solidified waste. A new storage facility for cemented waste is designed for 60 years storage. Conditioned waste will be disposed in near surface disposal facility.

Modernization of waste management includes retrieval from old storage facilities, characterization, treatment and conditioning of waste taking into account disposal routes. Before disposal waste will stored in new storage facilities. In new treatment facilities operational and decommissioning waste will be managed. It is assumed that retrieval of the waste and operation of new treatment facilities could start in 2012-2013.

After storage the waste will be disposed of in disposal facilities. It is envisaged to construct two disposal facilities – one for very low level and other for low and intermediate level radioactive waste. According plans very low level waste disposal facility could start operation in 2011 and disposal in low and intermediate level radioactive waste disposal facility in 2013. Disposal of high level waste is not resolved yet.

REFERENCES

[1] National Energy (Energy Independence) Strategy, endorsed by the Government Resolution No. 1426

on October 6, 2010 and submitted to the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania for final approval by Seimas Resolution.

[2] Republic of Lithuania. National Energy Efficiency Programme. September 19, 2001

[3] K. Almenas, A. Kaliatka, E. Uspuras. Ignalina RBMK - 1500. A Source Book. Extended and updated version. Ignalina Safety Analysis Group, Lithuanian Energy Institute, 1998.

[4] Ignalina Safety Analysis Report. Final Edition, 12 December 1996, Vattenfall Nuclear, Project AB for Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant.

[5] State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI) Annual Report 2010.

[6] Fifth report on Convention of Nuclear Safety of Republic of Lithuania, 2010.

[7] Radioactive Waste Management Agency Annual Report 2002, 2003.

[8] Report 2001 of the National Price and Energy Control Commission, 2002.

[9] Monitoring report „Security of Supply in the Lithuanian Electricity Market“. Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Lithuania, 2010.

[10] Energy in Lithuania 2009. Lithuanian Energy institute, 2010.

[11] IAEA Energy and Economic Data Base (EEBD).

[12] IAEA Power Reactor Information System (PRIS).

[13] Second report on Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management of Lithuania, 2008.

APPENDIX 1: INTERNATIONAL, MULTILATERAL AND BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

INTERNATIONAL, MULTILATERAL AND BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

AGREEMENTS WITH THE IAEA

• Membership in IAEA18 November 1993
• NPT related agreement
INFCIRC/413		Entry into force: 15 October 1992
• Additional Protocol Entry into force:5 July 2000
• Improved procedures for designation of
safeguards inspectors		 Accepted
• Supplementary agreement on provision of
technical assistance by the IAEA		 Entry into force:22 February1995
• Agreement on privileges and immunitiesEntry into force:28 February 2001

OTHER RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL TREATIES

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Entry into force:23 September 1991
• Convention on the physical protection of nuclear materials Entry into force:6 January 1994
• Convention on early notification of a nuclear accident Entry into force:17 December 1994
• Convention on assistance in the case of a nuclear accident or radiological
emergency		Entry into force: 22 October 2000
• Agreement for the application of safeguards in connection with the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weaponsEntry into force:15 October 1992
• Vienna convention on civil liability for nuclear damage Entry into force:15 December 1992
• Protocol to amend the Vienna convention on civil liability for nuclear damage
Signature:30 September 1997
• Joint protocol relating to the application of the Vienna convention and the Paris conventionEntry into force: 20 December 1993
• Convention on supplementary compensation for nuclear damage Signature:30 September 1997
• Convention on nuclear safetyEntry into force: 24 October 1996
• Joint convention on the safety of spent fuel management and on the safety of radioactive waste managementSignature:30 September 1997
• Comprehensive nuclear test ban treatyEntry into force: 7 February 2000
• ZANGGER Committee Non-Member
• Nuclear Export Guidelines Not Adopted
• Acceptance of NUSS Codes Accepted

BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

• Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania concerning information exchange and co-operation in the fields of nuclear safety and radiation protection 16 March 1993
• Agreement between Commissariat a l'Énergie Atomique de France and Ministry of Energy of Lithuania on the co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy
 26 April 1994
• Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway on early notification of nuclear accidents and on the exchange of information on nuclear facilities13 February 1995
• Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Government of the Republic Poland on early notification of a nuclear accidents, and on co-operation in the field of nuclear safety and radiation protection 2 June 1995

APPENDIX 2: MAIN ORGANIZATIONS, INSTITUTIONS AND COMPANIES INVOLVED IN NUCLEAR POWER RELATED ACTIVITIES

DIRECTORY OF THE MAIN ORGANIZATIONS, INSTITUTIONS AND COMPANIES INVOLVED IN NUCLEAR POWER RELATED ACTIVITIES

NATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY

Ministry of Energy
Gedimino 38/2, LT-01104 Vilnius		 Tel. +370 5 261 88 96
Fax. +370 5 262 39 74
http://www.enmin.lt

NATIONAL REGULATORY AUTHORITY

State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate
A. Goštauto str. 12, LT-01108 Vilnius		Tel. +370 5 262 4141
Fax +370 5 261 4487
http://www.vatesi.lt

MAIN POWER UTILITY

State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant
Visaginas, LT-4761 Ignalina		 Tel. +370 (386) 28 350
Fax. +370 (386) 29 350
http://www.iae.lt

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

Lithuanian Energy Institute
Breslaujos str. 3, LT-44403 Kaunas		 Tel. +370 37 35 14 03
Fax. +370 37 35 12 71
http://www.lei.lt
UAB „Visagino atomine elektrine“
Žveju str. 14, LT-09310 Vilnius		 Tel.+370 5 278 2998
Fax. +370 5 278 2115
http://www.vae.lt
Radiation Protection Centre
Kalvariju str. 153, LT-08221 Vilnius		Tel. 370 5 276 36 33
Fax. 370 5 275 46 92
http://www.rsc.lt
Kaunas University of Technology http://www.ktu.lt
Lithuanian University of Agriculture http://www.lzua.lt
Vilnius Gediminas Technical University http://www.vgtu.lt
Vilnius University http://www.vu.lt
Vytautas Magnus Universityhttp://www.vdu.lt

Attachments

Lithuania_2011.pdf