Baltic States – CIS, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Lithuania, Nuclear power plant

Guests from the Kaliningrad region presented the problems of the ongoing construction of the NPP, located only 10 kilometres from Lithuania's border, in the Seimas European Information Office news conference Monday.

The activists are wondering why their worries do not interest Lithuania's civic society because in an emergency case, a great part of Lithuania would fall in the zone of evacuation. The activists make no secret of the fact that the Russian authorities stifle their initiative by strict administrative methods. Nevertheless, they managed to register an initiative group on referendum and have started collecting signatures, informs LETA/ELTA.

They say that the construction of the new plant is a problem not only of the Kaliningrad region but of all macroregion of Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. The Kaliningrad Duma deputy Vladimir Sultanov said that it is impossible to get information on the construction process of the NPP. "I have sent around 20 queries to persons responsible for the construction, however, all possible deadlines passed and I still have not received any answers," Sultanov said.

"There are doubts if the new plant is safe, if it meets all international requirements that it has to meet. First of all, when such objects are built, local residents must be asked if they want such objects in their neighbourhood at all. A referendum in necessary that both opponents of proponents of the NPP could express their position," Mikhail Kostiayev, chairman of the initiative group on referendum, said. As reported, the Belarusian NPP is being built 40 kilometres from Vilnius, while the plant in Kaliningrad is located 60 kilometres from Lithuanian towns Taurage and Jurbarkas.