There will be conference "New Ignalina – benefits and dangers" held on Friday, January 26, 2007 from 9 AM to 5 PM in the Riga City Council plenary meeting room (Ratslaukums 1, Riga). Conference is organized by state owned enterprise "Vides projekti" in cooperation with Riga City Council Environment Committee and Latvian Environment Protection fund.

The aim of the conference "New Ignalina – benefits and dangers" is to start a public debate on possibility of building a new nuclear plant in the Baltic region – to talk over benefits and dangers, economical aspects, influence on environment and people’s health and also alternatives of the project.
It is very important to encourage public discussion about the particular issue in the society right now, because building a new nuclear plant may impact any inhabitant of Latvia.

It is planned that Minister of Environment Raimonds Vējonis, Chairman of Riga City Council Aivars Aksenoks, Chairman of Riga City Council Environment Committee Dainis Īvāns, Chairman of Environmental State Bureau Jānis Avotiņš, Parliamentary secretary Mārtiņš Jirgens, University of Latvia professor Ilma Čepāne, Riga Stradiņš University professor Tija Zvagule, Chairman of Latvian Academy of Sciences Juris Ekmanis, radiobiologist Arnolds Millers, journalist Sandra Veinberga, Head of Ministry of Economics Energetic Department Uģis Sarma and Vice-Head of Ministry of Economics Energetic Department Nils Freivalds, Latvenergo Management Board member Aigars Meļko and Chairman of Latvian Green Movement Alda Ozola-Matule will take part in the conference.

Also there will appear foreign experts at a meeting: Chairman of Ecological Council of Minsk Aleksandro Sykalo (Belarus), consultant on nuclear energy issues in Central and Eastern Europe for Greenpeace Jan Haverkamp (Czech Republic), Head of Atgaja Community Saulius Piksrys (Lithuania) and European Commission Deputy Director General in Directorate-general for Transport and Energy Dominique Ristori.

Latvian and foreign specialists of environment, medicine and economics will be involved in the public discussion about pluses and minuses of constructing a new nuclear plant in Baltic region.
Experts will talk over actuality of the topic in Latvia, situation of energy system in Europe and Latvia (in the context of building a new nuclear plant) and state energy system’s independence from neighboring countries.
Participants of conference "New Ignalina – benefits and dangers" will also discuss about impact of existent nuclear plants on economics and energy system overall, probable environment situation’s changes, possible alternatives of building nuclear plant and also future perspectives of energy politics.

Building a new nuclear plant became a live issue when Lithuania joined European Union. According to the EU accession arrangements for Lithuania, the nuclear plant facilities operating today at Ignalina will have to be closed down, causing a major shift in the electrical demand-supply balance for electricity not only in Lithuania but also in the integrated Baltic electrical system, including Estonia and Latvia.

It is the reason why the three governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have decided to jointly explore possible options to address this issue with the utmost urgency. One of the options considered entails building a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania, effectively replacing the existing obsolete Ignalina blocks with up-to-date safe nuclear power production technology.

There were tree important agreements made on 2006 – government officials from Baltic countries agreed to commission a feasibility study for a new nuclear power plant in the region. In the sequel Prime Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued a communiqué expressing their approval of construction of a new nuclear plant in the region and inviting the national energy companies to invest in the Project. And finally the memorandum of understanding about conducting the feasibility study on the building of a new nuclear plant was signed by the heads of Lietuvos Energija, Latvenergo and Eesti Energia.

Here is Agenda of the conference .

Additional information:
Margarita Apine,
Head of Public Awareness Department
Phone: 7225377
margarita.apine@videsprojekti.lv