The former site of an East German nuclear power plant at Lubmin is to be the German terminal for the new undersea Baltic gas pipeline, a German state premier said Friday. Construction of the pipeline, which has roused disapproval in Poland, is scheduled to begin December 8. Premier Harald Ringstorff of Mecklenburg West Pomerania state said Lubmin would become a "central European energy hub" thanks to the pipeline coming ashore from Greifswalder Bay after crossing the Baltic from Vyborg, northwest of St. Petersburg, Russia. Costing 4 billion euros (about 5 billion dollars), the pipeline is to supply western Europe with Russian gas from 2010. Existing pipelines pass through Poland. The site of the former power station, which used seawater as coolant, was turned into an industrial zone after the communist-era plant 180 kilometres north of Berlin was dismantled. --SP 2315 Local Time 2015 GMT