Latvian Prime Minister: Latvia is prepared to say "no" to Visaginas Nuclear Power Plant project

Discussions on Latvia's participation in the project were started in 2006. Since then, Latvia's main condition has always been for the project to be economically sound. "We have asked several important questions, but the Lithuanian side has not hurried to answer these questions," the prime minister said.

As Dombrovskis emphasizes, even though the Lithuanian side has proposed to coordinate the project's concession agreement with partners, Lithuania is moving forward with this unilaterally, "and has not included the questions that are important to Latvia."

"We are prepared to continue discussions, but if Latvia's conditions are not taken into account, we are prepared to say "no" to the project," Dombrovskis said.

As reported, it has been calculated that the total cost of the project will be EUR 5 billion (LTL 17 billion), but could increase to approximately EUR 6.8 billion when taking into account inflation and currency fluctuations.

It is likely that Latvian energy company "Latvenergo" could own 20 percent shares in the project, Estonia would own 22 percent shares, Lithuania 38 percent, while the project's strategic investor Hitachi would own 20 percent. Poland's participation in the project is yet to be seen. It pulled out of the project, but recently said it might reconsider.

According to current calculations, the construction of the nuclear power plant in Lithuania could be completed sometime between 2020 and 2021.