Section of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant model

This model section of the decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) uncovers the structure of the two largest Russian reactors of the RBMK type, that were hosted in the region by Lithuania. The reactors were the largest in the world at the time they were implemented and the design of the INPP nuclear facility is one of the most advanced among those employing the RBMK reactors which reveals a major power statement of Soviet expansionism through infrastructural integration in the occupied regions. INPP was implemented as an integral part of the Soviet Union energy network in 1983.

Originally the Ignalina plant was designed to provide power not only for Lithuania but also for the Soviet Union’s North-West power system needs. In 1989, forty-two percent of the power was exported and it had been generating seventy percent of Lithuanian electricity. INPP became even more important for the national energy system after the restitution of Lithuania’s independence when the country took back its jurisdiction in 1991. At the end of 2009 electricity was a major export.

Following the Chernobyl accident, INPP and its similar type of reactors has undergone a number of international studies and extensive safety analysis and was forced to be decommissioned by EU government as a condition of Lithuania’s accession to Europe in 2009. The juxtaposition of commissioning and decommissioning processes reveals forces of two integration processes that were projected on the region.