EU rejects Balkans nuclear plea - BBC

[Eugene]

Last Updated: Tuesday, 13 March 2007, 17:17 GMT

EU rejects Balkans nuclear plea
By Petru Clej
BBC News

The European Union has rejected a plea from Balkan countries to restart
two reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear plant in Bulgaria to ease power
shortages.

Five states asked the EU on Monday to allow Bulgaria to resume electricity
production at units three and four.

The reactors - deemed unsafe by the EU - were closed by Sofia on 1 January,
as part of its EU accession treaty.

But now Bulgaria says they are safe and would provide much-needed
electricity for the Balkans.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6445795.stm

[phantom power]

1. Perhaps the EU will ask the Bulgarians to wait patiently...

while they install 8 terawatt-hours worth of solar energy. Should only take a decade or so, if they hurry. Or maybe they'll just build them a couple of coal plants. Or perhaps they'll just let Bulgarians do without that energy.

[Igel]

5. Western Europe probably wonders

exactly why the Balkans needs electricity.

"Really? They have things that need electricity? Outside of Athens? Quelle surprise!"

[NNadir]

6. There are risks involved in doing without energy.

That point is often missed.

These are not ideal reactors maybe - I don't know the details - but it is rational to ask whether they are as dangerous as replacement by coal or as dangerous as blackouts.

I'll bet closure of these reactors will result in a net loss of life.

These are not RBMK type reactors.

The Belene reactors in Bulgaria should come on line in 2013. They are Russian design.

The situation should give Romania an opening to accelerate development of Cernavoda-3, a CANDU, for which the EU has been supportive. Regrettably this reactor is only expected to come on line in 2013. It is hoped that Romania will have 6 CANDU's by 2020, but it may be too little too late by then.

[Dead_Parrot]

2. Oh, the horror!

"any request to change that decision would be unacceptable, because it would entail a renegotiation of the accession treaty, a unanimous consent of the 27 member state governments and ratification by 27 parliaments".

What, you mean EU polititians would have to pull thier thumbs out thier arses and actually discuss it? Oh my, we can't have that, can we?

:puke:

[hunter]

3. It's all about electricity exports.

Electricity exports were an important aspect of the Bulgarian economy and surrounding nations. Dirty coal plants and rather sketchy nuclear plants were the main source of this electricity.

These nuclear plants have some design problems, the most glaring being insufficient containment to handle a large loss of coolant accident. The two reactors closed in January had been upgraded to mitigate these design deficiencies to some extent, and the argument is that these measures were adequate.

Blech. Like most everywhere else, I suppose more coal plants will be built, and things will get much worse before they get better. It will become more and more obvious every day that we would have been much better off banning new coal plants and systematically replacing old coal and inadequate nuclear plants with modern nuclear plants.

[gravity]

4. Thanks for putting some perspective on the issue