Daunting long term job opportunities at Lithuania’s Ignalina
Now that Lithuania’s Ignalina 2 nuclear reactor has been finally closed [http://weblog.greenpeace.org/nuclear-reaction/2010/01/farewell_to_lithuanias_ignalin.html], the country’s government is setting about the dangerous and dirty task of decommissioning the site. Even nuclear industry cheerleaders have recognised the ‘daunting’ nature of the decommissioning process.
Ignalina nuclear power plant, 160 km north of Vilnius, Lithuania.
© Jan Haverkamp. Click image for a larger view.
It goes without saying that it’s taxpayers rather than the nuclear industry that will be paying the bill to dismantle the reactor. Taxpayers from all over Europe in fact, as the European Community, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have all contributed to the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund.
The total estimated cost of the Ignalina decommissioning project is already over €1 billion ($1.4 billion), with the European Union having pledged €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) towards decommissioning costs.
Lithuania are trying to repay Europe’s kindness by offering excellent job prospects to those who want them.. If you’re looking for a career with long-term security, working at Ignalina might be just the thing for you (ignoring, if you can, the dangers and safety issues): the site is going to be monitored for 300 years. Just what happens in the hundreds of thousands of years the site will still be dangerous after that doesn’t seem to be have been discussed, but you’ll be guaranteed a job of guarding Ignalina’s highly dangerous waste until some time around the year 2310.
