Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant
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Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas, Lithuania. It is named after a bigger nearby town Ignalina.
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[edit] Reactors
The Ignalina nuclear power plant contains two RBMK-1500 water-cooled graphite-moderated channel-type power reactors. The RBMK-1500 reactor is the most powerful reactor in the world with the electrical power capacity of 1500 MWe (the new EPR under construction at Olkiluoto, Finland will be bigger at 1600 MWe). After the Chernobyl accident they were de-rated to 1360 MWe. These are the same type of reactor as at the Chernobyl power plant, hence the European Union's insistence on closing them.
Unit #1 came online in 1983, and was closed on December 31, 2004. Unit #2 came online in 1987 and is expected to close in 2009. Unit #3 was never finished.
[edit] History
Preparations for the construction started in 1974. The field work started four years later. In 1986 Unit #2 was completed. Originally, Unit #2 was scheduled for launch in 1986, but its commissioning was postponed for a year because of the Chernobyl accident. Also, the construction of Unit #3 was suspended and in 1989 it began to be demolished. Visaginas town was artificially built to accommodate people who work at the plant. There was no village at that place and it is one of the most prominent examples of what is called "plyno lauko investicija" (English: empty field investment; it describes a situation when a large plant, town, or other industrial object is build in an empty field with no prior infrastructure - the usual English idiom would be a "greenfields investment"). The location was chosen next to the biggest lake in Lithuania, Drūkšiai, to provide water to cool the pipes. A part of this lake is now shared with Belarus. Some environmental activists are afraid that the lake is too small for such a powerful plant and say that the average water temperature increased by a few degrees Celsius. This might have negative consequences on the lake ecosystem.
[edit] Closedown
As a condition of entry into the European Union, Lithuania agreed to close the station. Prior to the closure of Unit #1, and even allowing for de-rating of the station, the plant supplied 80% of Lithuania's electricity. Lithuania together with France are two countries that are most dependent on nuclear power. The EU agreed to pay substantial decommissioning costs and compensation, with payments continuing until 2013.
Closing of the plant faced fierce opposition from the Lithuanian people. The plant provides income to most of the local people. To compensate for this, a project was started to encourage tourism and other small businesses. Others were afraid that the price of electricity would skyrocket or that Lithuania would be left with gigantic costs and would go bankrupt.
