VILNIUS, February 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is currently financing the construction of a radioactive waste storage facility at Lithuania’s Ignalina nuclear power plant (NPP), Rusatom Overseas said on Tuesday.
The NPP’s operation was halted on December 31, 2009, in line with Lithuania’s commitments to the EU. It is to be fully dismantled by 2030.
Work on the nuclear waste site (Project B1) began in 2009 under a 2005 contract and is running behind schedule. The delays in the NPP dismantling program cost €725,000 a month, the plant’s management said.
Rusatom Overseas said it held consultations with the Lithuanian authorities last Friday.
Company Vice President Alexander Marten told Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevičius that the Russian side is currently working on Project B1 "on credit," so as to “keep the technological process going.”
Rusatom Overseas JSC, affiliated with the Rosatom nuclear power corporation, was established in 2011 to promote Russian technology on the international market.
