Czech President Petr Pavel signed a controversial law on nuclear storage sites in the country on Friday. The law stipulates, among other things, that only the government can decide on the final location of the final storage. Neither parliament nor municipalities have a veto right.
There are currently four places on the shortlist, all of which are no further than 200 kilometers from the border of Austria and Bavaria. Current plans provide for the storage of highly radioactive waste in a new mine to be built at a depth of approximately 500 meters underground. The law therefore largely refers to existing mining law.
About 80 to 100 tons of such nuclear waste are produced in the Czech Republic every year. Most of this is spent fuel from the two nuclear power plants Temelin and Dukovany.
Sharp criticism in Austria
The location decision must be made by 2030 and the final disposal facility must be built no later than 2065. The costs are estimated at almost four billion euros. The liberal-conservative government of the Czech Republic led by Prime Minister Petr Fiala wants to massively expand nuclear energy and build four new reactor blocks in the coming decades. The plans have caused sharp criticism in Austria.
Angelika Winzig, ÖVP delegation leader in the European Parliament, said in a press release that she found it “worrying” that the Czech government could now decide for itself where nuclear final storage would go.
Source: Krone
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