Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, an old power plant in Slovenia is about to be allowed to run till 2043. Austrian politicians and environmental organizations want to prevent that.
The Slovenian nuclear power plant in Krsko actually should be decommissioned in two years. The reactor, built 40 years ago in the old Communist-era Yugoslavia with technology from the American company Westinghouse – has reached the end of its life. Nevertheless, the Slovenian-Croatian operating company, GEN Energija d. o. o., wants to keep the reactor running for 22 more years – until 2043. This week, an environmental impact study has started, a procedure that is being run under international scrutiny.
The nuclear power plant is located on the Croatian-Slovenian border, but what is truly alarming is that it is located in an area that is particularly at risk from earthquakes.
Krsko is 85 kilometres from the epicentre of an earthquake that shook Croatia on December 29, 2020. The previous March, the Croatian capital Zagreb was hit hardest by an earthquake; with an epicentre that was only 40 km away from Krsko. Earthquake safety has always been one of the most discussed concerns regarding the Krsko plant.
After the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1992, there were several disputes between the now independent republics about the power plant. In 2001, legal and operational issues were settled by the governments. Since 2003, the power plant has again supplied both owners. The Krsko-plant, with a capacity of 696 MW, covers about 40% of Slovenia’s, and about 15% of Croatia’s, electricity demand.
The biggest objections to the plans to extend the operating period came from neighboring Austria – especially from the region of Carinthia. Austria stopped the opening of its only nuclear power station in Zwentendorf after a referendum in 1979. Now the risk of an earthquake hitting the Slovenian plant has caused more concerns among scientists.
“The power plant is designed for a horizontal ground acceleration of 0.3 g (just under a third of the acceleration due to gravity),” a geologist explained at a press conference in Vienna on March 10. The epicentre of the March 2020 earthquake had a ground acceleration of 0.4 g.
Global 2000 nuclear spokesperson Reinhard Uhrig demanded that in the course of the environmental impact assessment (EIA), the earthquake threat needs to be surveyed and reassessed – not only by an evaluation on paper (as already assured by the Slovenian EIA authority), but also by new geological investigations.
In order to raise the issue more to the political level, Global 2000 launched a petition calling on the Austrian federal government to insist that Slovenia should completely reassess the earthquake situation in and around Krsko. The Slovenian government, however, argues that the plant meets all technical and security requirements.
Furthermore, an interim storage facility is currently under construction at the plant’s site, where spent uranium fuel rods are to be stored for about 100 years. This will generate temperatures of several 100 degrees Celsius. The EIA procedure is also still underway. The tectonic specifications set a limit for ground acceleration of 0.78 g, significantly more than in 1981 for plant, itself, which was designed for only 0.3 g.
The owner of the nuclear power plant wanted to build a second reactor at the site. Investments of €2.5 billion were needed and the reactor was to have a capacity of between 1200 MW and 1500 MW and be built to the east of the existing one. In 2009, an Italian partnership was brought into the discussion for the construction of the unit, however, a decision on this project is still pending.
The environmental organization Global 2000 is now trying to thwart the extension of the operation at the Krsko nuclear power plant via a citizens’ petition. The Austrian ecological party has warned against the constant threat of nuclear energy.
“The mistaken belief that natural forces can be controlled made the Fukushima prefecture a restricted area ten years ago. 150,000 people lost their homes, and the clean-up will take up to 200 years,” said Martin Litschauer, an anti-nuclear energy spokesperson for the Greens. He called on European states and the international community to phase out nuclear energy “to prevent the worst” in view of the “ageing nuclear fleet in Europe”.