WARSAW: Poland's top utility PGE would not takes part in building a planned nuclear power plant in Lithuania and is no longer in talks with Russia's Rosatom on energy imports from Kaliningrad, the company said on Friday.
Earlier this year, Lithuania selected a consortium of General Electric and Hitachi to build a 1.3 gigawatt plant by 2020 and invited PGE to participate in the project.
"In the face of conditions that PGE found unacceptable at this stage and taking into account other key projects, we have decided to suspend our participation in this project before its takes the form of any formal obligations," PGE CEO Tomasz Zadroga was quoted as saying in a statement.
Lithuania's government said it would go ahead with the nuclear plant's project despite PGE's decision.
"Decision is not critical. We would continue seeking our goals, we will continue working with our regional partners and strategic investor (Hitachi)," Arvydas Sekmokas, Lithuania energy minister, told journalists.
Visagino Atomine Elektrine (VAE), the Lithuanian company in charge of the nuclear plant project, said in a separate statement on Friday it had signed an agreement with US Exelon Nuclear Partners, LLC, part of Chicago-based Exelon Corp, the biggest US nuclear reactor operator, to supervise the project.
Lithuania's government has said it planned to sign the concession and shareholders' agreements with the strategic investor and regional partners, including Latvia and Estonia, by end of this year or the beginning of 2012.
Russia's Rosatom plans to build a first 1 gigawatt unit in the Kaliningrad-based nuclear power plant by 2016, with a second unit going online in 2018.
Warsaw also named PGE to build Poland's first nuclear power plant due early in next decade with capacity of 3 gigawatts.
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