There is one word answer why they were forced to be shut down: Austria. Austria was (and probably still is) violently anti-nuclear (funny thing is that I think there was time when Austria was importer of electricity from Slovakia). Anyway, Austria wanted the whole plant shut down, and I guess the best they could get was a "compromise" - to shut down the older of the 2 of the 4, even though they were very similar.
Is this insider hearsay or was it public knowledge? The reason I ask is because I saw no mention of Austria when I did my search. Assuming it was Austria that put the kabosh on the reactors, what are their fears? They have only a small border with Slovakia. Were the reactors on the border?
Each reactor generated about 10% of country's needs for electricity, so closure of 2 is going to be a loss of about 20%. This closure made Slovakia an energy importer, and of course the lost capacity has to be replaced by greenhouse gas emiting capacity.
Two reactors providing Slovakia 20% of their power? From a strategic standpoint, I am not sure that's such a good idea. Do you?
But the real problem is that when you lose such a large percentage of "clean" power, and are replace it with greenhouse gas generating power, and on top of it, EU cuts the cap of CO2 output, it is kind of a vicious cycle for a country that has had pretty fast economic growth, and wants to continue to have high economic growth to catch u with the west.
Knowing what I know of the EU, I suspect they are giving Slovakia financial help with the new facilities. And its not lke the EU to put a country in economic jeopardy in terms of power generation. Plus, I didn't mention this earlier but I think Slovakia now has until 2010 to close the reactors. |
