THE SUPREME Court has revoked the Nuclear Regulatory Authority’s (ÚJD) amended permit for completion of the construction of the third and fourth reactor blocks at the nuclear plant in Mochovce, Nitra Region. With this verdict the court overturned a 2012 decision of the Bratislava Regional Court, and ruled in favour of objections on the part of Greenpeace Slovensko, which has criticised ÚJD’s refusal to allow environmentalists to take part in the permission process, the TASR newswire reported on August 21.
The ÚJD should now assess the environmental impacts of the completion process again, this time with the participation of Greenpeace.
The activists have welcomed the decision, saying that the court “has stripped the investor of the key permit required to continue with the completion of the Mochovce nuclear power plant blocks”.
“It in fact means that the ÚJD should now call on the completion-work contractor, Slovenské Elektrárne (SE), to halt all construction work on the completion process without delay,” said Greenpeace’s head Juraj Rizman, as quoted by TASR.
Yet, the Economy Ministry claimed the ruling will not influence the work, saying that “there is no reason for putting the work on hold”. Also, the ÚJD explained that the verdict does mean that now Greenpeace will be allowed to see the documents related to the plant’s construction, the Sme daily wrote.
The original construction permit for the completion of the two reactor blocks was granted in 1986, but the work on the plant was halted in the early 1990s. Work on the blocks was resumed in 2008 based on a ÚJD decision allowing for changes to the facilities under construction before their final completion that were not covered by the original construction permit. Greenpeace then filed a complaint against the revised permit, but the ÚJD rejected this and confirmed its decision in 2009, TASR wrote.
