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Japan's Mitsubishi Eyes Lithuania Nuclear Project - PM

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AFP)--Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. (8058.TO), one of the world's leading manufacturers of nuclear reactors, is interested in working on Lithuania's planned nuclear energy plant, the Baltic nation's prime minister said Tuesday.

"Their interest in our plan is important for us," Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius said, quoted by the Baltic News Service.

"We think that we can use this to develop wider contacts as well," he told reporters in Vilnius after meeting with Mitsubishi representatives.

Kazuo Tsukuda, chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, "showed interest in Lithuania's strategic project," a Lithuanian government press release said.

In March, Lithuania's energy minister singled out Swedish energy group Vattenfall Europe AG (VTT-XE), Germany's RWE AG (RWE.XE) or E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), and France's Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) as being in the running for the construction contract for the four-nation nuclear power facility.

Other nuclear companies interested in the project include France's Areva SA ( CEI.FR), Spain's Endesa (ELEZF), General Electric Co. (GE)-Hitachi and Westinghouse from the U.S., the U.K.'s Nukem and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited.

Under its 2004 European Union entry deal, Lithuania pledged to shut down its existing Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear power facility by 2010.

Based on the same design as reactors from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - the world's worst nuclear energy accident - the plant's first reactor was closed at the end of 2004.

The new Ignalina power plant was due to be up and running by 2015, but is now officially scheduled for 2018. However, some experts say it is unlikely to open before 2020.

In March, Lithuania said work on the stalled project could begin this autumn.

The facility is to be co-financed by Lithuania, its fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia, plus neighbor Poland, but there is still disagreement over who will get how much of the plant's energy output.

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