Anti-nuclear activists from Greenpeace Slovensko failed with their lawsuit against Slovakia’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ÚJD) regarding the finalisation of construction of the third and fourth reactors at the Mochovce nuclear power plant as the regional court in Bratislava dismissed the organisation’s lawsuit, the SITA newswire wrote, adding that Greenpeace will likely appeal the ruling.
“We assess the court’s decision positively,” said the director of the legislative and legal department of ÚJD, Martin Pospíšil. “It upheld the office, which finally confirms the lawfulness of the procedure.”
The ÚJD argued before the court that in permitting a change in the construction process before the completion of the third and fourth reactors in Mochovce neither a new activity nor a new scope of the power plant’s activity had occurred.
“It is still a nuclear power plant with the same projected performance, based on the same principle,” ÚJD stated, as quoted by SITA, adding that the status of the nuclear power plant will change only after an operation-launching permit is issued.
Pospíšil believes that as the Environment Ministry is competent to decide, the lawsuit’s request for a change in the conditions for elaborating an assessment of impacts on the environment were not supportable, adding that he thinks that changes that are to be implemented as part of the completion will contribute to higher safety of the power station and also eliminate possible environmental impacts.
He added as well that he is convinced that the public was invited to participate in the permitting procedure when the elected representatives of the municipalities in the area took a stance on it and that Greenpeace’s reservations will be reflected in the final stance that will be attached to the final building permission and launch of the power plant’s operation.
Greenpeace does not agree with the authority’s argument that the public was invited to the permitting process for the completion of the third and fourth units of the power plant, saying that the ÚJD had not invited representatives of its organisation to take part in the permitting procedure while the permit was issued without being preceded by an assessment of environmental impacts (EIA).
Greenpeace added that in the past the Aarhus Committee, based on the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, decided in its favour and confirmed that Slovakia breached the rights of the public when it approved the construction of the third and fourth units of the Mochovce nuclear power plant.
Andrea Zlatňanská of Greenpeace said that the stance of the ÚJD is striking for her organisation when it said that it is prepared to accept Greenpeace’s objections after the completion of the construction and during the procedure of issuing the final commissioning approval.
“On what will we comment when it is finished and when we cannot influence the process?” Zlatňanská asked, as quoted by SITA.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
