For reasons yet unknown, Soviet nuclear planners wanted to build an NPP in Estonia, encompassing Leningrad, the Baltic Republics, Kaliningrad, Belarus and parts of Western Russia. On a planner’s map, Võrtsjärv looked like a promising location to host such a plant. Nevertheless, it became soon clear that Võrtsjärv had too little of the right water available. However, while Võrtsjärv had the wrong water for the NPP, it had the right for another important and in this case competing use of this liquid resource: the establishment of a high-value eel fishery. The act of blocking an NPP construction was part and parcel of a major shift in Soviet Estonia’s fisheries management – one that redefined water and fish as a resource to be protected and valued rather than exploited. Ultimately, no NPP was built at Võrtsjärv.