Lithuania closes its nuclear power station

Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant is a closed two-unit RBMK-1500 nuclear power station in Visaginas, Lithuania. It is named after a larger nearby town Ignalina. The plant is similar to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in both reactor design and in its lack of a robust containment building and Lithuania agreed to close it as part of its accession agreement to the European Union. Unit 1 was closed in December 2004. The remaining unit accounted for 25% of Lithuania's electricity generating capacity, and supplied about 70% of Lithuania's electrical demand. Unit 2 was closed on 31 December 2009. Proposals have been made to construct another nuclear power plant next to Ignalina, but the global financial crisis of 2009 makes financing a multi-billion dollar new plant a challenging proposition.