Czech power group takes step to build new nuclear capacity: company Prague (AFP) July 11, 2008 Czech electricity giant CEZ took a first step to building new nuclear capacity on Friday by filing a demand for an environmental assessment for an extension to a plant. "CEZ wants to allow a complex evaluation of the impact of the possible completion of the Temelin power plant on the environment, that is why it today submitted a demand for an EIA (environment impact assessment) to be carried out at the environment ministry," the company said in a statement. The troubled Soviet-designed power plant, around 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Austrian border, was initially conceived for four reactors but later scaled back to the current two following the fall of the communist regime in 1989. CEZ has repeatedly said that it wants to add extra nuclear capacity and highlighted completion of Temelin as its first choice option. The demand for an environment impact assessment to be carried out is likely to fuel tensions with neigbouring Austria where environmental groups and politicians have attacked Temelin as unsafe, highlighting frequently publicised plant failures. The power company's demand is also likely to increase strains within the fragile centre-right coalition, where the junior coalition party, the Greens, have inserted a ban on new nuclear construction in the administration's programme. CEZ pointed out that assessments for major projects can "often last a few years" and added that government expert commission recently confirmed its view that the Central European country will start running short of electricity around 2015. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek told Czech media earlier this week that CEZ's demand for an environmental assessment would not break the coalition pact, adding that the next government would probably have to decide on whether a new nuclear power plant is built or not. Topolanek's Civic Democratic Party back more nuclear power. CEZ is around two-thirds owned by the Czech state and is the second biggest electricity exporter in Europe after French giant Electricite de France. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Steinmeier slams wholesale export of nuclear plants: report Berlin (AFP) July 11, 2008 German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned that it could prove dangerous to give nations around the world nuclear power plants in an interview published here Friday. |
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