The article aims to evaluate the prospects of construction of a nuclear power plant in Lithuania and the possible benefits, as well as to analyse the decisive factors of development of nuclear energy in Europe and worldwide. Attention is paid to the increasingly stringent regulation of the development of nuclear energy, which may play a role in the growing competition among the nuclear power plants built in Lithuania, Russia and Belarus. The article ends with the conclusion that despite the high costs of construction of nuclear power plants, pending problems of disposal of spent nuclear fuel, rapid development of renewable resources and other factors, nuclear energy will retain its role in the energy balances of the countries in the region. The article also gives a positive assessment of the possibilities of construction of a nuclear power plant in Lithuania.