Estonia cuts number of nuclear power plant sites to three — ERR News

Estonia has reduced the list of potential sites for the construction of a nuclear power plant from six to three. All selected areas are located in Viru-Nigula Rural Municipality in Lääne-Viru County, approximately 120 kilometers east of Tallinn.

As ERR News reports, the areas of Madala, Malla and Letipea remain under consideration. A site in Lüganuse, in Ida-Viru County, was excluded from the list for security reasons.

Security assessment

Project manager Agnes Lihtsa said that the decision is primarily based on the conclusions of the Ministry of Defence. According to her, security analysis is a standard procedure: various state institutions assess issues within their areas of competence. The Ministry of Defence concluded that three locations can be considered further, while another three cannot.

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More detailed analyses will now be carried out for the selected areas and they will be compared with each other. Lihtsa noted that initial route options for these sites are planned to be presented to the public at the beginning of next year and discussed at the local level. She also acknowledged a delay of several months in the process, linking it to the clarification of the methodology.

Legal framework for the project

In May 2025, the Estonian government launched a procedure for national special spatial planning and a strategic environmental assessment for a nuclear power plant with a capacity of up to 600 MW and the necessary infrastructure. Estonia currently has no nuclear power plants, but the possibility of building a facility with a small modular reactor has been discussed for several years.

The government approved the Nuclear Energy and Safety Act in March 2026, and the Riigikogu adopted it in the summer. The document created a legal framework for nuclear energy, designated the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority as the regulator, and provided for mandatory parliamentary approval before the construction of a reactor. In October, €2.2 million was allocated for the regulator's work: initially, it will employ 13 specialists, and staffing is planned to increase to around 40 people within four years. If the plant is built, electricity generation there will begin no earlier than 2035.