NUCLEAR reactors in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia have been declared
irredeemably unsafe, jeopardising these countries鈥� plans to join the European
Union. The newly formed Western European Nuclear Regulators鈥� Association
(WENRA), which represents government watchdogs from 10 countries, including
Britain, has investigated the safety of reactors in seven Eastern European
countries that want to join the EU. It has concluded that some of the older
plants cannot be made safe.
The EU has already stated that, to gain entry, prospective member nations
from Eastern Europe must improve the safety of nuclear power reactors or close
them down. But the governments of these countries want to retain the plants
because they rely heavily on electricity from them. Last year, 77 per cent of
Lithuania鈥檚 electricity was from nuclear power, the highest proportion of any
country in the world.
However, the WENRA report, published this month, suggests the country鈥檚 two
reactors at Ignalina are at risk of an accident similar to that at Chernobyl in
1986. 鈥淭he lack of an adequate reactor containment remains a major problem which
cannot realistically be solved,鈥� it says.
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Similar problems exist at the Kozluduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria and at
Bohunice in Slovakia. There are also safety problems at plants in Romania,
Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
Senior EU officials and the 52-nation European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development are pressing for the closure of Ignalina and Kozluduy before
2005.