As Jutarnji List/Index write, the decision was made by the Slovenian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning, which issued an environmental permit for the extension of the Krsko nuclear plant’s operation.
HEP points out that this decision “has strategic importance, both for the Croatian Electric Industry, as a 50 percent co-owner of NEK, and for the entire Croatian energy sector, from an economic, energy and environmental aspect, especially in the circumstances of the current energy crisis.”
The Krsko nuclear power plant, which was put into operation in 1983, produces an average of 5.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, divided equally between Croatia and Slovenia. This means that the Krsko plant annually covers about 20 percent of Slovenia’s needs and about 16 percent of Croatia’s needs for electricity.
A long and complex procedure
HEP points out that in 2022, the Croatian share of production from the Krsko plant amounted to 2.65 TWh, which accounted for 14.42 percent of the total available electricity in Croatia. This year, the Krsko plant is expected to produce more than six billion kWh of electricity.
The process of obtaining environmental consent was long and highly complex. Several scientific institutions from Croatia and Slovenia participated in the preparation of documentation, analysis, and expert evaluations, as well as the preparation of the environmental impact assessment, and a cross-border environmental impact assessment was also carried out with the neighboring countries of Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Austria and, additionally, Germany.
According to the available information, in addition to the environmental consent, the condition for extending the operation of the Krsko nuclear power plant was the successful completion of the modernization and increase of the safety of the power plant, which was fulfilled by the conclusion of the Nuclear Safety Modernization Program.
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