Slovakia says it may relaunch old nuke plant in crisis
(PRAGUE) - Slovakia said Friday an energy crisis may force it to relaunch an outdated Soviet-type reactor shut down as part of the deal that saw the country join the European Union in 2004.
"I cannot rule it out. If there was such a threat in Slovakia, it is more important to have light and warmth than dark and cold," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said after the European Nuclear Energy Forum in Prague.
"We put it before respecting the international obligations," he told reporters.
The former communist country closed the Soviet-type VVER-440/230 reactor at the Jaslovske Bohunice plant northwest of the capital Bratislava on December 31, 2008 to meet a pledge given to the EU before accession.
But it threatened to relaunch it a few days later as it was facing a blackout due to a row over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine that left several European countries without gas supplies during a severe winter.
The European Commission warned that the gas crisis was not sufficient grounds to relaunch the reactor and threatened legal action if Bratislava went ahead. Slovakia finally gave up shortly after the gas supplies resumed.
But its nuclear plans got a new boost on Friday as the Slovak company Javys signed a deal with Czech energy giant CEZ to set up a joint venture that will build a new unit at Jaslovske.
No financial details were disclosed as CEZ chairman and chief executive Martin Roman said a feasibility study was needed first.
The deal comes on top of last year's decision to build two new units at Slovakia's other nuclear plant in Mochovce, east of Bratislava, which had been shelved since the fall of communism in 1989.
"Slovakia has the obligation to correct the terrible errors which were made when closing the generator in Jaslovske Bohunice ... there was no technical fundamental for that," said Fico.
His government was criticised by the Slovak opposition and by Greenpeace for picking CEZ as the partner without a tender at the end of 2008.
On Friday, a Greenpeace official said the organisation would lodge a complaint with the European Commission as "we feel something is legally wrong."
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