ZAGREB, October 1, 2019 – Environment and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said on Tuesday Croatia was continuing activities concerning the construction of a radioactive waste storage facility in Čerkezovac in Dvor municipality in accordance with the highest environmental standards because no consensus was reached with Slovenia on building a joint facility for waste from the Krško nuclear power plant.
“We will talk with the people in Čerkezovac… Croatian inhabitants live there and they share the fate of all Croatian inhabitants, so it’s quite certain the storage facility will be there, but at the highest environmental standards,” Ćorić told reporters in Karlovac, adding that “there’s no reason for fear as such storage facilities exist across Europe.”
He dismissed Bosnian fears that a storage facility in Čerkezovac, which is near the border, would pose a threat to development, business and life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Nothing, including the life of any person, on either side of the Una river, in Croatia or BiH, will be in danger.”
Ćorić said that every interested party could take part in a public consultation once the technical and ecological aspects of the project were ready.
He dismissed “the blanket political manifestos from BiH and the local government in Dvor,” urging them not to “disseminate fear among people and score cheap political points.”
Asked if Croatia had an alternative location for storing radioactive waste if the Čerkezovac environmental impact study was rejected, Ćorić said “there’s no plan B” and that Croatia would be forced to accept Slovenia’s offer to build a joint storage facility, which it rejected on Monday.
The minister said that aside from the waste from the Krško plant, which is located in Slovenia and co-owned by Slovenia and Croatia, Croatia must also store radioactive waste produced on its territory, “instead of it being stored at dozens of locations in Europe as is now the case.”
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