Commenting on the decision of European donors to suspend financing the largest project in Ignalina NPP decommissioning, spent nuclear fuel storage, Butkevičius told BNS that GNS, the partner of the Russian-capital German company Nukem, would have to prove that the containers it has offered are suitable for the project.
"I spoke with the energy minister on Friday and asked him to collect the materials and prepare full information and, possibly organize a meeting on the governmental level. I would like to see for myself what has been done," Butkevičius told journalists on Saturday.
In his words, no payments will be made to GNS until the company provides documentation to prove safety of its containers.
"There are two roads we can take. One road is, if we find out that the containers are not certified, I think there can be no payments, although some part has already been paid for, this was a mistake. Of course, if the company fails to provide documents to prove the quality and suitability of the containers, we should terminate the contract with the company or, if they correct the defects and validate that they're right, we should have a clear plan on what we will do next," said Butkevičius.
With support of donors of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) decided to terminate funding of one of Ignalina shutdown projects on Thursday.
The project covers construction of a temporary spent nuclear fuel storage facility and supply of storage containers for fuel from two reactors.
The decision was made after Ignalina NPP operator and the consortium of German companies Nukem and GNS failed to settle a two-year conflict over implementation of the specific project.
