Abstract
For years, the only things the Te-melin nuclear power plant in the southern Czech Republic churned out were cost overruns and scheduling delays. Four empty cooling towers loomed over an otherwise idyllic countryside some 60 miles south of Prague as engineers grappled with problems associated with grafting Western safety technology onto Soviet reactor hardware. Depending on your perspective, it was either an ambitious or foolhardy attempt to bring the unfinished plant up to Western safety standards.
As if to make up for lost time, the Czech government made a series of quicksilver moves in early July. On July 5, only three hours after the State Office for Nuclear Safety gave permission, workers began loading fuel into one of the two reactors. Plant spokesman Milan Nebesar said 92 tons of nuclear fuel would be loaded in the first reactor within 10 to 12 days, and the first power would be generated in the fall.
The news of Temelin's fueling was met with disbelief and shock by environmentalists and some of the Czech Republic's neighbors—namely Austria and Germany, who have waged a lengthy campaign against the plant.
Austria does not want another Soviet-designed reactor on its doorstep. It fought a losing battle to halt Slovakia from finishing construction at the Mo-chovce nuclear plant in 1998. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel sent a letter to Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman asking for a delay, even as the fuel loading began.
July 13: One of about 40 environmentalists protesting in Prague against the Temelin nuclear power plant.
“The really irritating thing is that the Czechs haven't even bothered to tell us whether their policies measure up to the safety standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” said Wolfgang Kromp, who was the Austrian government's nuclear adviser until last January.
German Environmental Minister Jürgen Trittin said the “premature” fuel loading at Temelin made it impossible to evaluate the safety of the plant, and he accused the Czechs of failing to provide an environmental impact assessment.
The Czech media have reported that the European Union— the exclusive economic club the Czechs and other Central and Eastern European nations are desperate to join—is satisfied with safety at Te-melin, even though within the EU there is no fixed nuclear reactor safety standard. (Despite its objections, Austria has failed to make Temelin an issue that could throw a wrench in the Czech's EU bid.)
At home, a group called Referendum 2000, which opposes the project, has submitted some 115,000 signatures to parliament demanding a referendum on Temelin. President Vaclav Havel—whose opinions hold weight here given his dissident past— gave his crucial support to the plebiscite. There's only one problem: There is no legislation permitting a referendum.
Premier Milos Zeman made a referendum on Temelin a key plank in his Social Democrats' party platform two years ago. Now he thinks the idea makes little sense, as do other leading politicians like conservative Vaclav Klaus, who said a decision on whether to start the plant should be left to the “experts.”
Klaus has long been one of the biggest backers of Temelin. It was his government in 1993 that awarded the then-American-owned nuclear division of Westinghouse a contract to outfit Temelin with a state-of-the-art information and control system.
Critics have long feared that an untested hybrid, fusing Soviet and Western technology, would only spell trouble. They say the new system also fails to address two serious shortcomings with the Temelin reactor (a VVER-1000): The reactor vessel is too small, and its containment unit is not strong enough.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, however, is convinced the plant is safe. “The mix of Eastern and Western technology in that reactor is good, in the way that there are more eyes not only of one constructor, but also of other suppliers that this plant will run safely,” said IAEA spokesman Hans Meyer.
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Many of the arguments against Te-melin are grounded in economics, not safety. Critics say the last thing the Czech Republic needs is more energy-producing capacity. An independent panel of experts (hired by the government to look into Temelin's viability) concluded in February 1999 that there would be no domestic demand for Temelin until 2015.
Like other former communist countries, the Czech Republic is far from energy efficient. Jan Hawerkamp of Czech Greenpeace says the government should focus on energy efficiency, noting that Czechs use two and a half times more energy per capita than Germany, the Netherlands, or the United States.
In the 1990s, the government urged people to switch from “dirty” coal to “clean” electricity. Naïve Czech homeowners, lured by subsidized electricity prices, installed new electric heating systems with a nationwide power drain of over 2,000 megawatts—the same amount of power Temelin promises to produce. But, like other East European countries, the Czech Republic lacks the means to pay for its upgraded nuclear capacities, so it will have to export the electricity to pay back the loans for the work.
But will Temelin be able to pay the bills? Critics say no. They contend that CEZ, the Czech electrical agency, will be forced to sell most of Temelin's energy at fire-sale prices.
“They already have much more energy than they need and they [the Czechs] have it much more cheaper and they definitely will also sell it within the EU. And that has to be looked at,” warns Mercedes Echerer, a European parliamentarian and member of the Austrian Greens.
The Czech Republic is already a net energy exporter, selling electricity mostly to Germany as well as to Italy, Switzerland, and Slovenia. And with energy markets liberalizing, exports are bound to grow. The European Commission estimates that by 2003, third party utilities will be responsible for a third of the EU's electricity sales. The Czechs, along with Poland and Hungary, are well situated to take advantage of the newly evolving liberalized energy market, with all three connected to the Western electricity grid.
Temelin has already cost the Czech government more than $2 billion, and the final price tag could be as high as $3 billion. But the high costs should not be a complete surprise.
Germany halted construction of two similar reactors in Stendal in eastern Germany following reunification in 1990. Analysis showed that upgrading and finishing the VVER-1000 reactors— the same type as at Temelin—would cost between $2.3 and $2.9 billion. Even for financially better off Germany, the cost was too high. In 1992, the World Bank warned that Temelin “would be a heavy demand on the public budget.”
That same year, a least-cost study prepared by the Belgian company Tractebel concluded that if Temelin cost more than 96 billion Koruna it would no longer be the best option. Temelin has now exceeded that figure.
Some Czech government officials oppose Temelin, fearing that as many as 20,000 miners could be thrown out of work in the country's economically depressed north if the plant goes on line. Backers, however, say that bringing Temelin on line will spell the end of polluting dirty brown coal.
The rush to get Temelin up and running also comes as the government considers selling its 67 percent stake in the Czech electric utility. The French energy concern Electricité de France may be interested. Getting the albatross that is Temelin off its neck would make the utility more attractive to future investors.