VILNIUS, Lithuania – At a public hearing that took place in Vilnius on March 2 to discuss the potential environmental impact of the Ostrovets Nuclear Power Plant under planning in Belarus, participants voiced a strong opposition to the idea of having a new nuclear site just 50 kilometres from the Lithuanian capital. They followed with a request that the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment make an official notation of their disapproval of the experimental Russian project in the meeting’s record. Bellona’s regular contributor Andrei Ozharovsky reports from Vilnius.

ST. PETERSBURG – As New Year bells sounded the final knell for Reactor Two at Lithuania’s Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, President Dalia Grybauskaite announced 2010 will usher in an era of energy independence for Lithuania. But will it also bring a future without nuclear power? Talks proceed for more reactor contracts – all while Lithuania prepares to grapple with the economic aftershock and the task of safely dismantling the closed site and ensuring secure long-term storage of its radioactive waste.

The 11th Council Meeting of European Green Parties in Malmö, Sweden this weekend issued an excoriating joint statement on the prospective construction of the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant that Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear state corporation, plans to build in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.