It should be noted that after appointing the new Director General of the SE Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in March 2013 and the renewal of the dialogue between the enterprise and the Contractor, the problematic issues concerning the spent nuclear fuel containers were resolved. After resumption of the negotiations the achievement was done that the Contractor submitted to the INPP the justifications of the identified discrepancies of the manufactured containers. The validity of these justifications was confirmed by the independent experts’ conclusions. By the end of October, the Contractor also has to submit complete sets of documents, which INPP will provide for the State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate (VATESI).
During the Donor Assembly on 14 June, 2013 the representatives of the European Commission and EBRD acknowledged that the progress has been made while dealing with the B1 issues directly related to safety, and the remaining technical issues are being resolved (crane upgrades, shock absorbers). Another significant Project B2/3/4 (Solid Waste Management and Storage Facilities) is being implemented without any technical issues and the progress while trying to reduce the current 50-month delay is visible, although not yet very satisfactory.
„The renewal of the funding means that the progress in resolving problematic issues is acknowledged. Unfortunately, the projects B1 and B2/3/4 are on delay and the works are carried out very sluggishly. We should hope for the Ignalina NPP authorities to manage to achieve that the Contractor would speed up the completion of the delayed projects and for the Contractor to ensure that the works would be carried out in optimal speed“ – said Daiva Rimašauskaitė, the Chairperson of the Ignalina NPP Management Board.
www.enmin.lt
