Agence France-Presse,
BRATISLAVA: The Slovak government has postponed its decision to reactivate a Soviet-era nuclear reactor that was recently shut down for security reasons, Prime Minister Robert Fico said Tuesday.
“We are able to keep the energy network stabilised for several days. We will use this time to inform our partners but I still consider reviving this unit as very relevant and urgent,” Fico said.
“If the critical situation comes, we will certainly make this decision,” he added.
Slovakia, a former communist country, closed the Soviet-type VVER-440/230 reactor at the Jaslovske Bohunice plant northwest of the capital Bratislava on December 31 to meet a pledge given to the EU before accession in May 2004.
The European Commission said on Monday that the relaunch plan runs counter to EU law and “would be a clear violation” of treaties signed before Slovakia's accession.
“We are having an intense dialogue with the European Commission,” Fico said, adding that Slovakia was ready to receive international experts to assess the state of the nuclear reactor.
On Tuesday, the European Commission complained that “little or no gas” was flowing from Russia through Ukraine to Europe.
Ukraine admitted blocking the gas but said it was Gazprom's fault for imposing “unacceptable” conditions for its transit through Ukraine to European customers.
“Our pessimistic expectations regarding stabilised gas supplies in the next few days are coming true, the gas war between Russia and Ukraine is still going on,” Fico said.
The country started preparatory work on the Jaslovske relaunch on Saturday as the Czech EU presidency was struggling to hammer out a deal on restoring deliveries from Russia via Ukraine.
“The preparatory works (to reactivate the Jaslovske Bohunice reactor) have been completed, we are ready on the technical level”, said Fico.
