Russian state energy corporation Rosatom announced plans last year to build a 1,200-megawatt nuclear plant near Sovetsk by 2016. The site is just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Lithuania's border.

But memories of the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl in 1986 in what is now Ukraine has convinced residents like Lyudmila Litvinova and others who went to a meeting with local officials that the risk is too high.

"Why would we want to succumb to a radiation risk here in Russia," Litvinova, 52, told AFP.

"Nuclear power plants don't just explode, they also generate a small amount of radioactivity that could be very harmful to the population," Alexandra Koroleva, co-chairwoman of the environment group Ecodefence, told AFP.

A recent survey by the Kaliningrad Express newspaper showed 43 percent of residents oppose the nuclear plant, 26 percent support it but had safety concerns, while 19 percent gave full support.

Beyond safety concerns, opponents also question why Kaliningrad needs a plant at all.

Koroleva said he group believed the region would not need a nuclear power plant for 15 years.

A new gas-fired, 900-megawatt plant is due online in Kaliningrad by 2010. Kaliningrad deputy governor Yuri Shamilov told a public meeting that its output would be "just enough to meet the needs of the region today."

The plant is similar in design to an upgraded facility west of Saint Petersburg in Russia, according to Rosatom spokesman Igor Konyshev.

Rosatom wants to supply Kaliningrad and also surrounding European Union nations however. "Selling energy abroad will allow us to keep the energy costs low for domestic consumption," Konyshev added.

The project is part of what appears to be a new regional nuclear race.

"It's amazing to witness the shift in the debate since Chernobyl. Now there's a big revival in nuclear power," Nils Muiznieks, a University of Latvia professor focused on Russia and its ties with its EU neighbours, told AFP.

For Russia, an energy giant, the project helps diversify its power exports beyond natural gas, Muiznieks said.

The Baltic states and Poland have nuclear power plans to reduce reliance on Russian energy, he said.

Poland plans to build its first nuclear plant by 2020. Lithuania is working with Estonia, Latvia and Poland to replace an ageing Chernobyl-type plant near its eastern town of Ignalina. Vilnius pledged to close the existing facility at the end of this year under its 2004 EU entry deal.

The original target for opening the new 3,200-megawatt plant was 2015, but experts suggest 2020 is more realistic.

Ignalina generates three quarters of Lithuania's power and a plant in Kaliningrad could plug the energy gap once it is switched off. But Russia's energy dominance raises jitters in Vilnius which has rocky relations with its former Soviet-era master.

Ignalina currently supplies a third of Kaliningrad's electricity.

Belarus is also planning a plant, with the first power unit due online in 2016 and the second in 2018.

In Kaliningrad, Rosatom is offering a stake of up to 49 percent to foreign investors in the future plant. It signed an agreement with Kaliningrad's regional administration in 2008 and is expected to apply for a construction licence in October.

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