Lithuania Shuts Down Its Only Nuclear Power Plant

The shutdown was mandated by the EU, where the Chernobyl-type facility is considered unsafe due to inherent design flaws.

Lithuania’s Soviet-built nuclear power plant was shut down late Thursday as part of an agreement with the European Union, ushering in a new era of energy uncertainty for the country.

Engineers say the closure of the Ignalina plant in the town of Visaginas happened on New Year’s Eve shortly before midnight local time.

The shutdown is bad news for the recession-hit country partly because it will lose a source of cheap electricity and be forced to import more expensive energy. But the shutdown was mandated by the EU, where the Chernobyl-type facility is considered unsafe due to inherent design flaws.

Voice of America