On 16 June a delegation led by Hitachi President Hiroaki Nakanishi introduced its bid to invest in Visaginas NPP project during a meeting with the Government of the Republic of Lithuania and the Commission for the Implementation of the New Visaginas NPP Project. Hitachi, together with one of its subsidiaries, Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy.

“Our aim is to ensure that development of Visaginas NPP complies with all the international and nuclear safety requirements. Therefore we are delighted at this opportunity to welcome Hitachi, the top-level technology company, to Lithuania; this company has expressed its interest to participate in this project as a strategic investor”, said Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius.

Kubilius also noted that the fact, that it was President of Hitachi Group himself, who had introduced his company’s bid and showed his active involvement in the entire project environment, demonstrated very serious intentions by the potential investor, as well as recognition of Visaginas NPP project soundness.

“Lithuania would be interested in Hitachi’s investment not only into the nuclear power, but also in other sectors, especially high technologies, in our country”, said Kubilius after his meeting with the President of Hitachi.

During its visit in Lithuania, Hitachi delegation also met with representatives of the regional partners of Visaginas NPP project from Estonia, Latvia, and Poland, as well as the European Commission representatives.

The regional Visaginas NPP project is among the most progressive new nuclear power plant projects in Europe. Major part of the preliminary work for the project has already been completed, including the environmental impact assessment, which is in compliance with the ESPOO Convention, and the assessment of the site suitability; conclusions of both assessments were confirmed by expert missions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well.

It is planed that construction work for Visaginas NPP will start in 2014, and the plant is to start generating power as of 2020.