Nuclear power in the Baltics

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

I read some articles about Estonia and plans for nuclear power stations, and it seems likely that they are going to go ahead with this at some point in the near future.

As far as I know, Latvia never had nuclear reactors, and Lithuania had one that is no longer operational?

And there is a lot of controversy about the one that opened last year in Belarus, which seems to have a lot of safety concerns. Other close by neighbors in the north of Europe, like Finland, have them too but they are seen as more safe.

In general this seems to be something that countries disagree on, some are building many new plants, while some are planning to decommission all of their old ones.

What do you think about Estonia's plans to build new nuclear stations, and should Latvia and Lithuania do the same to improve their energy security and not risk being dependent on others?

Piri

Julie Brooks-Girskiene The Lithuanian one Ignalinos AE was working well, didn't have any issues, it was one of the most powerful in the area, and Lithuania had kind of independence from energy. It is in the process of closing and it will take probably over a decade more, it is a clean power, but Lithuania needed to start the closing process if wanted to join the EU as the project was like Chernobyl.

Well, it is a high risk if something goes wrong, but there are many improvements in the security and still many countries are having them and will probably in the future. And it makes sense. It is super efficient. And actually if everything goes well it is much less resources and waste as well as impact than other ways. And the mini ones are easier to manage in emergency cases.

Lithuanians are the most unhappy about the Belarusian one, because it has a border with Lithuania, not so far away from Vilnius and they started up without all the security protocols and keeps others without information. Experts as for now says that it is not safe, it is the main concerns. And some of Lithuanians are pissed because the country was forced to close the well maintained, perfectly working one of their own.

Now Lithuania is depending on other countries and don't have their own so powerful plant. We still have quite many hydro power plants, solar energy is growing, but it is not enough.

I kind of think that Estonia is making a smart move. And they are in EU so all safety protocols will be well followed. Quite sure that Lithuania won't start a new nuclear power plant project. Too much drama in this sector here! 😁 Personally I was for EU, but against Ignalina AE closing.

Some green power in Lithuania is by an Estonian company already.

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Piri That's really interesting, I didn't know that was the reason for closing the plant in Lithuania. Does it mean that the EU believed there was design flaw in this kind of reactor like the ones that were at Chernobyl, or that they think it was not well maintained, or just over-caution I wonder.

I also am curious what the issues are with the one in Belarus, I have read a lot of people saying that it has issues and that it should not have opened, etc. but I understand that it is a modern Russian design and nobody seems to put clearly what the problems or concerns with it might be.

Piri And the mini ones are easier to manage in emergency cases.

Many of the plans that they are talking about in Estonia seem to be for small or 'micro' nuclear plants. I don't really know enough to comment on what that means or how much safer it makes using the technology if something should go wrong though.

Piri

Julie Brooks-Girskiene To be honest I have no idea about Belarus one, just according to all international regulations it should be followed some procedures and it looks that is wasn't. And well no one knows what is going on… it is a bit different with the information to public… just they know. There is a practice of 'not giving all the information'.

And now it is a tension between Lithuania and Belarus after the president election situation in Belarus. So for me it is quite a hard core to understand the real situation.

Well about Ignalina… it was no evidence of flawed, but the possibility because of the same design Chernobyl. It costs massive amount of EU budget to close it as well… and of course each of Lithuanian has an opinion about it 😁

A fun fact the great HBO Chernobyl was filmed in Ignalina AE. 🎬🎥

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Piri Well about Ignalina… it was no evidence of flawed, but the possibility because of the same design Chernobyl. It costs massive amount of EU budget to close it as well… and of course each of Lithuanian has an opinion about it

Maybe they have some justification if it was the same design of power station that had the biggest disaster before, but maybe not if it was well kept and maintained, I do not really know anything about reactor design, etc. 😕

I guess if nothing else it is good that the closure cost comes from the EU because I imagine it is a very expensive process!

Piri A fun fact the great HBO Chernobyl was filmed in Ignalina AE.

We absolutely loved this show, if anyone hasn't seen it then I highly recommend watching it, it's really nicely made, tells parts you may not know of the whole story, and is just a good length, not dragging on forever.

Skylar

I'm in favor of nuclear power generally, as long as it is well regulated and safety is the top priority. I meant we must have learned something from the mistakes of the past and the disasters, and made fixes so they can't happen again, right? right??

I am Ashlynn

I don't live in any of the Baltic countries yet, but here in Ireland we have a ban on nuclear power and we have never had a nuclear power station.

There is talk about it every few years, especially more recently with the invention or at least idea of these much smaller plants, and I think that most people are not so against it.

Piri

It is an interesting topic. The fact is that if we want to reduce the CO2 levels and to 'cool down' the planet one of the easiest step is to make sure the energy is 'green'. Probably the need of energy won't go down, but will increase in the future. So how to make it happen?

Is it enough to relay on the wind and sun, or should we empower the geothermal energy more and use the support from nuclear power?

If the nuclear power might be the sustainable solution is it worth to risk? Maybe an each country doesn't really need to relay on their own. Maybe we can empower some solar power stations in the deserts, and great wind power in the seas creating networks.

Treebeard

Nuclear is safe until something goes wrong, and it feels like every time that people start to forget what went wrong the last time and start to stop being scared of it then another problem happens. We were all quite past Chernobyl and then Fukushima happened. It will take a while for people to get over it again.

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Treebeard We were all quite past Chernobyl and then Fukushima happened. It will take a while for people to get over it again.

That's a good point. I wonder how long between major disasters it would take before people were more accepting 🤔

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