May 24, 2007
Latvian citizens and environmental groups gathered in mid-March to oppose plans to build a new power plant in neighbouring Lithuania. The plant would replace an extant facility in Ignalina, which lies adjacent to Latvia's Daugavpils region.
Residents of Daugavpils and neighbouring municipalities are concerned about a proposed storage facility at which spent nuclear fuel from Ingalina's Nos. 1 and 2 reactors would be stored for decades to come.
Daugavpils (pop. 100,000), is Latvia's second-largest city, and just 30 kilometres from Ignalina. Rural municipalities such as Demene and Medumi lie even closer to the nuclear site.
"Land prices are decreasing, and organic farmers and rural tourism are suffering, because nobody wants to buy products from or visit an area with a nuclear power plant right next door," said Demene Municipality Mayor Valentina Gadzane.
Facility proponents have thus far withheld most plant-related data, citing confidentiality concerns.
"Nuclear energy's astronomically high costs completely handicap possibilities to develop sustainable local renewable sources for some time to come," claimed Alda Ozola-Matule from the Latvian Green Movement and Bankwatch CEE network.
