This article explores the structural factors and the arguments of the political actors in the Lithuanian referendum of 2008 on extending the working of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Station. By applying a new institutionalism theoretical perspective, this article studies campaign development, its structural framework and the actors' arguments. The presupposition has been confirmed that the value normative environment of the referendum was long-term and sustained, without any "paradigmatic shifts" during the referendum debates themselves. With that said, the equilibrium of competing normative attitudes was shifted towards agreeing with an extension of the work as a "minor evil". Within this structural environment, a range of "second order" features was typical for the referendum campaign model, additionally reinforced by another parallel (chronologically coinciding) campaign, that of the elections to the