Social Aspects of the Functioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant

ISSN 1648-2603 • VIEÐOJI POLITIKA IR ADMINISTRAVIMAS • 2007. Nr. 22. Social aspects of the functioning of the ignalina nuclear power plant Liutauras Labanauskas Institute for Social Research Saltoniðkiø str. 58, LT-08105 Vilnius The key themes in this article relate to policy observation and analysis of social aspects of the functioning of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP). The multiethnic Visaginas community is socially, economically and culturally excluded from other areas of Lithuania as the majority of economic activities in the region is oriented towards the INPP. The following interrelated questions are considered in the article: the social costs of decommissioning of the plant, the integration policies and their operation in reducing social and economic disparities in the region as well as the access to citizenship and education benefits of the INPP residents. As the challenges confronted today by the second generation non-Lithuanians in the region are still ignored there are some specific questions about the growing social, cultural and economic divide between Lithuanians and non-Lithuanians in the INPP region addressed in the article. Pagrindinës sàvokos: socialinë integracija, tautinës maþumos, Ignalinos AE, antros kartos rusai. Keywords: social integration, ethnic minorities, Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, second generation Rus- sians. Introduction sociological examination of Lithuanian urban structure as it was at the center of ideological This article aims at analyzing the structural action and has remained one of the most promi- and cultural integration challenges to overcome nent examples of ‘empty field investment’ - a by the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) re- situation when a new town and a large plant is gion residents and focuses on social policy ob- build in a territory with no prior infrastructure. servation and analysis of the issues confronted In geopolitical terms the INPP region has re- today by the multiethnic Visaginas town com- mained transnational region even after 1990’s munity, 80 percent of the population of which is when Lithuania regained the independence and made up of the Russian speaking ex-immigrants it strongly influences the neighbouring Latvia, from the Former Soviet Union (the FSU) [2: 36]. Byelorussia, Poland and Estonia on reaping the As the research in this field has been rather frag- benefits of economic and environmental poli- mented and somewhat inefficient, it is of utmost cies and, in Olsonian terms, ‘concentrated’ soci- importance to tackle this fragmentation, the etal interests. At the moment there are no ma- peculiarities of which require consolidated sci- jor programmes coordinated by either Lithuanian entific activity of a number of institutions and or international research community on the im- integration of multidisciplinary knowledge. pact of INPP decommissioning on the Visaginas In many high-performing work environ- community1. ments, an organization’s control over the indi- viduals is low; however the Ignalina Nuclear 1 Power Plant has a high degree of control over By the decision by Lithuanian Government in 2000 the policy package “Eastern Lithuania the social and economic benefits for the major- Development Programme for 1996-2003“ was ity of the residents in the INPP region which prepared and implemented by The Department of makes it an exceptional phenomenon from the National Minorities and Lithuanians Living Abroad point of view of social and political sciences. to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The Visaginas town together with the INPP region main goal of this programme was to assess the social marks an important place in the political and developments and economic changes in Eastern 78 Nobody can determine which of the two for the integration policy observation as the num- possible scenarios is likely to predominate in the ber of Russians who reside in the country live years ahead: a growing and more diversified INPP mainly in urban areas [4: 212] and in largely con- region economy with Visaginas population en- centrated communities. Ethnic group integration joying greater access to the major institutions of is also a term which builds its meaning on no- society, such as education, labour market, a po- tions of assimilation, absorption, acculturation, litical system, social services and economic op- incorporation, inclusion and civic participation portunities (i.e. structural integration), a com- versus enfranchisement, and intolerance etc. If munity with developed competence in and un- we add Weber’s concern about legitimacy and derstanding of the language, culture and the controlling territory to this definition we have a values of contemporary Lithuanian-dominant fairly complete picture of the political aspect of society, (i.e. cultural integration), and a com- integration, thus the three dimensions of inte- munity with inclusion in the primary relation- gration - structural, cultural and interactive – ships and social networks of their ethnic com- are operationalized in this article. The article is munities and having strong social ties with the organized as follows: after we have introduced larger society and the members of the majority the structural, cultural and interactive integra- group (i.e. interactive integration), or a socially, tion concepts and placed them in the empirical politically and economically excluded minority context in the first section, we will proceed to group, suffering from the sluggish labour mar- evaluating the social costs of decommissioning ket and playing out a future town-zombie sce- of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in the next nario constructed by the media and scientists. section and addressing the integration problems In 1990 after Lithuania regained its inde- of structural, cultural and interactive character pendence from the Former Soviet Union, Rus- of the second generation Russians in Lithuania sians in Lithuania became a minority group as a in the last section of this article. result of economic, political, legislative and social changes, rather than traditional migration. The Social Costs of Decommissioning of the Thus, the idea of permanent settlement of Rus- Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant sians in Lithuania contributes to the discourse of ethnic minorities’ integration policy and adds Today the plant’s operators are ethnic (some a clear distinction from immigration policy. of them second generation) Russians who have The independent Lithuania of today offers a agreed to stay on and become Lithuanian citi- favourable legislative liaison among all ethnic zens. Here lies the main probem of Visaginas minorities. The laws of the Republic of Lithuania town: the residents to Ignalina NPP region have guarantee national minorities, living in the coun- come from ethnically, geographically, culturally try the rights to equal social, cultural, political and linguistically heterogeneous territories which and economic benefits of Lithuanian citizenship; led to substantial integration problems: the in- however, Lithuania provides an interesting case digenous population was not likely to accept strangers [6: 176]. The town was founded in 1975 as a satellite town to the Ignalina Nuclear Power Lithuania (Visaginas in particular) in order to prepare Plant and since 1977, when the first residents solutions to the lack of investment and social development issues. The project of “National settled in the new town and up to 1990’s, the Minorities Policy Development Strategy for 2015“ is population of Visaginas increased rapidly, mainly now being prepared by The Department of National due to net migration from the rest of the USSR. Minorities which will be the most significant legal Such migration patterns resulted mainly in pre- document provisioning long-term national minorities dominantly Russian-speaking ethnic structure of integration policy objectives based on economic, Visaginas [18: 5] By the end of 1980s, the major- social, cultural and political expressions of relations ity of Visaginas population consisted of Russians between national minorities and the host society. In and Belarussians, whereas ethnic Lithuanians the project of the Minorities Policy Development accounted for less than 8 percent. While the situ- Strategy 2015 it is stated that despite that the adaptation ation was gradually changing in 1990s, funda- of national minorities in Lithuania remains the mental changes did not occur and are not likely dominating strategy of integration, there still exist in the near future: Russian speaking ex-immi- differences in the access to social and economic grants from other parts of the USSR still consti- benefits between persons belonging to minority group tute over 80 percent of the population of and the host society. Visaginas (see Table 1). 79 Table 1. Ethnic structure of Visaginas population 1979–1999% Lithuanians Russians Poles Belarussians Latvians Ukrainians Others 1979 5.8 66.2 5.4 11.5 0.7 x 10.4 1989 7.7 64.2 6.4 11.0 3.0 2.5 5.2 1995 14.0 59.4 6.1 10.8 3.0 x 6,7 1999 15.0 55 8.0 11 0.5 6.5 4.0 (x – attributed to the “Others“) Source: International Organization for Migration, 2002. The social, economic, cultural and political misleading concept as they might have felt that adaptation of Russian-speaking immigrants from they would have been leaving the land of their the former republics of the Soviet Union was ancestors. In the Soviet Union, these op- mainly determined by their work experience in posing interests of ethnic minorities were not the nuclear energy sector. This form

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