RWE NUKEM will plan, build and instal the components of the new waste treatment center, which is expected to start operations in late 2009, the bank said in a statement.

The waste treatment centre will be built on the site of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, situated in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus. The project will be financed by the Ignalina International Decomissioning Support Fund, administered by the EBRD, the statement said.

In accession talks with the European Union, Lithuania committed to shut down the Ignalina nuclear plant in 2009 and has already closed one of its two Chernobyl-type reactors.

The international fund to support the closure of Ignalina was set up in

The closure of Ignalina is also supported by the EU, which is to provide close to 500 million euros until 2006 to assist with the plant's closure and develop Lithuania's energy sector.

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