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Updated September 2008
Nuclear Overview
Estonia has four nuclear-related facilities: Sillamae Metal and Chemical Production Plant (also known as Silmet), the Paldiski nuclear reactor training facility, the Saku and Tammiku waste depositories, and Dvigatel. There is no highly radioactive waste in Estonia: Silmet has uranium tailings, Paldiski and Saku have solid and liquid waste, and Tammiku has low- and intermediate-level solid waste.
Although rumors circulated in October 1991 about a secret enrichment plant on the Baltic coast near the port of Narva, Estonian officials identified the site as a U3O8 production plant. Estonia has no operating nuclear power reactors.
The utility companies of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania released a joint feasibility study in October 2006 calling for the construction of at least one new nuclear reactor of between 800 and 1,600 MW in Lithuania to replace Ignalina-2, which is scheduled to be closed in 2009. In March 2007, Poland agreed to participate in the project, which is estimated to cost $5 billion. As of June 2008, however, negotiations over the project had become bogged down over questions of ownership, and a July 2008 report delivered to the prime ministers of Finland and Estonia called for construction of a jointly-owned Finnish-Estonian nuclear power plant in Estonia.[1] Estonia currently relies on one shale-fired power plant at Narva and Lithuania's Ignalina-2 for electricity, but emissions restrictions will limit the Narva plant's output beginning in 2012.[2]
Sources:
[1] Ariane Sains, "
Finland, Estonia should consider joint effort to build new nuclear power plant, says report," Global Power Report, 3 July 2008; in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, <http://www.lexisnexis.com>.
[2] "Estonia wants share in new plant at Ignalina, pushes for quick startup," Nucleonics Week, 29 May 2008.
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008
by MIIS.
