According to HSS, a member of the ruling coalition, the answer is “no”.
President of Croatian Peasants’ Party (HSS) Krešimir Beljak and Croatian Member of European Parliament Marijana Petir asked on Monday Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković and the government not to build a nuclear waste storage facility in Croatia, adding that the nuclear waste problem should be solved in dialogue with Slovenia, reports Večernji List on May 16, 2016.
“We do not want to have a nuclear waste storage facility. The solution is in talks with Slovenians, who are ready to help us solve the problem, but someone from the Croatian side needs to initiate discussions”, said Beljak at a press conference. He said that, if needed, HSS was ready to start organizing protests. “I urge the Prime Minister, the government and all parties to demonstrate their patriotism on this issue, and not in Jasenovac or in Bleiburg”, added Beljak.
Marijana Petir argued that there was no adequate location in Croatia for construction of such facility, and therefore HSS was against not only the idea of building the facility in Trgovska Gora in Sisak-Moslavina county, where it is planned to be built, but also anywhere else in Croatia. She is also concerned because the government has not yet initiated talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are necessary since Trgovska Gora is near its border.
“We must dispose of the waste on our territory, but there is also a European directive from 2011 which states that the waste must be disposed of in the country where it was produced. In this sense, it is logical that the waste is disposed in Slovenia, which has already prepared all the necessary documentation for the construction of a facility near the Krško Nuclear Power Plant”, said Petir.
She called on the government to start a dialogue with Slovenia and pointed out that the service life of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in Slovenia but is owned by both Slovenia and Croatia, has been extended to 2043.
Petir also claims that, according to available information, it would be cheaper to make a deal with Slovenia since the construction of two silos in Slovenia would cost around 180 million euros, while the construction of a facility in Croatia would be much costlier.
