Decommissioning
in Lithuania:
A Case Study of Denuclearization on the Local Level
By Laurel
Kritkausky (ECOLOGIA-USA) and Kristina Vilimaite
(ECOLOGIA-Baltic Office)
Western
governments have repeatedly identified Lithuania's
Ignalina nuclear power plant as one of the most unsafe in
Europe. Ignalina NPP has two RBMK reactors. During
the last few years safety of the reactors was improved.
However, the process of upgrading the technology is
limited by the reactor design. After the European
Union made decommissioning Ignalina NPP a prerequisite
for considering Lithuania for accession, the Lithuanian
government decided to close one of the reactors at the
nuclear power plant. While environmentalists and Western
governments welcomed the decision, citizens living near
the plant in the town of Visaginas were shocked and
scared; Ignalina is the only industry in the area and
nearly everyone either works at the plant or in related
support services.
If
Visaginas' residents are left alone to cope with the
unemployment, depression, and increased social problems
that will follow the decommissioning of the Ignalina
nuclear power plant, it will become a symbol throughout
the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe of
the problems associated with denuclearization. The social
and political costs of denuclearization are so great in
the former Soviet Union that Russian president Putin
addressed them within days of his election while making a
trip to Chelyabinsk-70, a major nuclear industry site in
Russia.[i]
ECOLOGIA's
work in Visaginas, Lithuania is part of the "Nuclear
Communities in Transition" project. This project was
launched in the summer of 1999 and supports public
participation and nuclear safety in Lithuania, Belarus,
and several regions of Russia. It is funded though
a grant from the W. Alton Jones Foundation.
ECOLOGIA's
goal in working with residents of Visaginas, Lithuania is
to address the social issues surrounding Ignalina NPP's
decommissioning and thereby make this process a model of
successful denuclearization.
ECOLOGIA's
current work
Help
develop programs for Visaginas’ future
ECOLOGIA is organizing a series of working meetings on
sustainable development and implementing Local Agenda 21
in Visaginas. Local Agenda 21 (LA21) is an approach
to development planning which was approved by world
leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. It emphasizes
public participation and the creation of development
plans which are economically and environmentally
sustainable. Many European nations have already
begun implementing LA21. ECOLOGIA views it as an
effective and productive approach for planning for
Visaginas' future.
Since
the spring of 2000, ECOLOGIA staff from Lithuania,
Russia, and Belarus have been working with local
government officials, business leaders, trade unions
members, and non-governmental organizations in Visaginas
to develop plans for the future of the town. Belarusian
and Lithuanian local officials and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) who have already begun to implement
LA21 in their own towns were brought by ECOLOGIA to meet
with Visaginas residents, to share expertise, and to
provide advice. This exchange program on LA21 is designed
to help Visaginas make concrete plans for a future
without Ignalina NPP. A November 2000 LA 21 working
meeting participant said, "at last we see some hope
and various directions for actions." An
article about the seminar in a local newspaper read,
"Let's Take the Decision About the Future of the
Town Into Our Hands."[ii]
As a
result of the November meeting, initiative groups
consisting of local NGOs, Visaginas Municipality
officials, NGOs, trade union members and other concerned
citizens decided to hold regular meetings to further
develop long-term plans and detailed programs for
sustainable development of the town.
Strengthen
NGOs in Visaginas
ECOLOGIA is conducting several two-day training workshops
to strengthen local NGOs organizationally so that they
can be more successfully involved in Local Agenda 21 and
to enable them to better access information and
articulate their concerns and suggestions about
Visaginas' future to the public. ECOLOGIA staff from
Russia, Lithuania, and Belarus are working together to
provide information on topics such as fundraising,
legislation effecting NGOs, and how NGOs can work
cooperatively together and with local government. A
participant in the October 2000 NGO training, Olga
Afanasjeva, from the Visaginas NGO
"SOS-Children" observed: "I have learned a
lot of useful information during the training which will
help me in my further work."[iii]
Strengthen
connections between decision-makers on Visaginas
Many organizations in Lithuania are interested in
helping Visaginas' people with support in the form of
funding or advice. In order to avoid duplication of
support activities ECOLOGIA is convening roundtable
meetings of government officials and managers of various
foreign-funded organizations that operate in Lithuania so
that they may meet and share their plans for Visaginas.
The first of these meetings was held in March 2001.
Provide
support to local citizen decision-makers
ECOLOGIA's Lithuanian staff person, Kristina
Vilimaite, gathers information about government plans for
Visaginas future and identifies possibilities for funding
and training Visaginas' NGOs. Ms. Vilimaite shares this
information with local NGOs to help them overcome both
their geographic and linguistic barriers (more than two
thirds of Visaginas' population does not understand
Lithuanian). She is also gathering information from
Russian and Belarusian Ecoline staff and from Lithuanian
NGOs about their expertise on Local Agenda 21 in order to
better help people in Visaginas with advice and
experience about LA21 implementation.
Future
work
In the
next two years, ECOLOGIA plans to continue supporting
sustainable development planning for Visaginas and to
foster the active involvement of NGOs in dealing with the
social and economic consequences of the decommissioning
of Ignalina NPP. ECOLOGIA's international team of staff
from Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and the US will continue
to bring the organization's 10 years of expertise,
support for local grassroots solutions to problems, and
international perspective to Visaginas to enable the town
to make a safe and successful transition to a non-nuclear
economy and future.
Other
major accomplishments
Launched
citizen and NGO action toward a non-nuclear future
In February 2000 ECOLOGIA co-sponsored a conference in
Visaginas to provide information about decommissioning
plans and to show NGOs that they can play a real and
productive role in decision-making about their future.
- The conference provided
an opportunity for residents to have access,
for the first time, to crucial information about
plans for Ignalina and Visaginas. Fifteen
speakers provided information, including a member
of the Lithuanian parliament, representatives
from the Lithuanian Ministries of Economy
and Environment, the Visaginas mayor, a member of
the regional planning committee, the regional
PHARE manager from the EU, and others. Citizens
had the opportunity to ask public officials about
plans for Visaginas, and to make suggestions
about ways to improve them. For example, the
Lithuanian government intends to fund a
retraining center so that workers can gain skills
and find new jobs. However, the Lithuanian
officials do not plan to locate this center in
Visaginas, and town residents expressed their
concern about this.
- ECOLOGIA/Ecoline
staff from Belarus, Russia, and the US spoke
about public participation and how citizens can
be productively involved in decision-making on
important local issues. For example, the
Ecoline-Belarus project coordinator Alexei
Nesterenko spoke about his experience with LA21
in a town in Belarus. He explained how LA21 can
be an effective tool for planning sustainable
development and for including all sectors of
society in the planning process. In Belarus
citizen involvement ensured that the town plan
addressed the concerns of its inhabitants for
better street lighting. This information about
LA21 was extremely interesting to people in
Visaginas, since they are anxious about how their
town will change after the decommissioning.
- ECOLOGIA-Russia's NGO
partners from Tomsk, Saratov, and Rostov attended
the Visaginas conference. Although they were not
scheduled to speak, the Russian NGOs made
presentations about their work near nuclear power
plants in Russia after the audience specifically
requested it. Since people in Visaginas are
native Russian speakers and few know Lithuanian,
they were especially excited to be able to freely
converse and connect with the Russian-speaking
NGOs and Ecoline staff.
- On the second day,
conference participants were divided into groups
to make plans for future work in Visaginas. One
group planned a conference of all Visaginas NGOs,
which was held two weeks later. The other group
created a list of future work goals, which became
the draft agenda for the Visaginas NGOs'
conference. After the conference Lyudmila
Voevodina, a Visaginas resident and coordinator
of a project to establish an information center
for Visaginas NGOs, said "I began to foster
the weak hope that we, united, can become a major
force."[iv]
Inspired
citizens near Ignalina
As a direct result of our conference, NGOs near Ignalina
held their own conference two weeks later to gather all
NGOs in the city to work together for the future of their
area. The information that was provided at the ECOLOGIA
conference combined with the message that NGOs can
participate successfully and productively in
decision-making encouraged town residents to form a
steering committee as well as sub-committees on Agenda
21; the media; NGO information; financial issues; public
participation; and decision making. ECOLOGIA staff were
meeting regularly with the steering committee after the
conference and are providing information and support on
local Agenda 21.
ECOLOGIA's
experience with nuclear issues, public participation,
cross cultural projects, and reliance on local staff
members all enable us to work effectively in the
Visaginas community.
Kristina
Vilimaite is the Lithuanian Coordinator of the Nuclear
Communities in Transition Project and works from the
ECOLOGIA Baltic Office in Lithuania. Laurel
Kritkausky is the project's Director and works primarily
from ECOLOGIA's US office in Middlebury, Vermont.
Endnotes
[i] “Putin Vows Russia Will Reinvigorate
Its Nuclear Force. Sees no threat to West. Backs arms
reduction talks but calls for modernizing of
country’s arsenal.” By Michael R. Gordon, New
York Times 1 April 2000, front page.
[ii] “Let's Take the Decisions
about the Future of Our Town into Our Own Hands!"
– Sugardas-TV, No. 46(304) 17-11-2000, P2.
[iii] “ECOLOGIA Continues to
Teach Visaginas NGOs“ – Sugardas-TV,
27-10-2000, P2.
[iv] Pavenkova, Irina. “Black,
White, or Striped.” Sugardas-TV N7
(265) 18 February 2000, P2
Other
sources
"Beginning
to Address the Social Impact of the Closure of Ignalina
NPP." EU Phare Programme, 2000.
Kavaliauskas,
Algirdas. Visaginas (years 1975-1999). Vilnius:
Andrija, 1999. 365 p.
January
2001
ECOLOGIA
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2002 Please make
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