Lithuania

In the north-east of the country, the Ignalina nuclear power plant with two largest Soviet reactors of their type, known as RBMK-1500 has been in operation. Construction of this NPP started in 1978 and made critical in 1983 and 1987, with a 30-year life cycle. A third unit was planned but not completed and then demolished. When Lithuania applied for EU membership, it was required by the EU to close both RBMK units. Political decision meeting this requirement was included into the EU entry agreement despite the numerous safety improvements implemented and the absence of serious safety concerns agreed on by the majority of both Lithuanian and foreign experts. Therefore unit 1 was closed in December 2004 and unit 2 was closed at the end of 2009. Currently one operating unit 2 at Ignalina NPP is generating net power up to 1300 MW(e), supplying up to 70% of the total country's electricity consumption. The history of nuclear education in Lithuania is closely related with the development of the nuclear industry and infrastructure. It can be broken down into the three periods. The main player in this field is Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) - the biggest technical university in the country with 29 years of experience in nuclear engineering education. Since initially Ignalina NPP was staffed by specialists from the former USSR, education of nuclear engineers started at Kaunas University of Technology in 1978. Nuclear study programmes, curriculum, textbooks and manuals were the same as in the other higher schools of the former USSR. Using support from the Moscow Energy Institute and other Soviet institutes and NPPs, 56 nuclear energy engineers were educated during this period. In 1986, just after the Chernobyl NPP incident, training of nuclear energy specialists at KTU was suspended. Just after Lithuania's independence was restored in 1991, education of nuclear energy specialists at KTU was renewed. Since then, the system of studies in nuclear engineering has been substantially modified and modernized, in order to implement the best practice of highly developed western countries. Seventy bachelors and 60 masters were educated during this period enabling to fulfil minimal and gradually decreasing needs for nuclear engineering specialists in the frame of approaching the closure of the Ignalina NPP. On the basis of positive results of the feasibility study of construction of new NPP, a National Energy Strategy was endorsed in 2007. A new NPP is scheduled to be built in Lithuania by 2015. A decree endorsed by the Lithuanian Parliament in June 2007 recommended organizing the construction of a new NPP in cooperation with Latvia, Estonia and Poland. Currently, preparation for construction of the new NPP is going on: the national investor LEO LT and Visaginas NPP - core project management team has been established, the environment impact report has been prepared and analysed, possible technologies and sites have been examined, and other studies are being conducted or continued