"Donors have taken account of the information provided by Lithuania about the negotiations with Nukem and request to consider freezing the funding for the project implemented by this company until the question of the safety of the spent fuel containers will be fully resolved," said Ambassador Arūnas Vinčiūnas, Lithuania's deputy permanent representative at the European Union (EU).
B1 – spent nuclear fuel storage project – is the largest in the decommissioning of Ignalina NPP. It has been the subject of clashes between Nukem and the Lithuanian government on a number of occasions, as the government is not happy with the fuel storage containers offered by Nukem's subcontractor, German company GNS.
The Donor Conference is held by the Assembly of Donors, the manager of the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund. Its donors include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the European Commission (EC).
According to information available to BNS, Lithuania's Energy Ministry sent a letter before the conference with a proposal to consider termination of funding for Nukem projects.
