The Czech Government discussed today with SUJB president Drabova the safety situation of Temelín. SUJB reports the government that everything is in order and that permission for activation of Temelín soon can be given. Internal evidence produced by Greenpeace and others, as well as a report of the German Institute for Reactor Safety GRS show, however, that not everything is in order. Greenpeace concludes with the German Environmental Minister Trittin that Temelín is not safe enough to activate. Greenpeace therefore calls on the Government to include more opinions in its judgement and order postponement of activation as long as all problems are not satisfactorily solved.

Greenpeace sees the safety report of the German Institute for Reactor Safety on Temelín as a confirmation of the fears it already expressed earlier.

Over the last week, Greenpeace received evidence of yet another irregularity with possibly heavy safety consequences. In 1994, a part of the primary cooling circuit was welded wrongly to the reactor vessel. This was corrected by cutting the pipe, turning it and re-welding it to the reactor vessel on the same spot as the original seem - without following proper procedures. Former Temelín workers claim that this 'repair' was carried out without any reporting or extra testing. According to Jiri Folajtar (Czech) and Norbert Mayer (German), both specialists in nuclear installation work, this is a highly risky situation. "According to witnesses, the repair caused irreversible damage to the reactor vessel. If this procedure would have been reported properly, construction would have been stopped several years ago", informed Jiri Tutter, director of Greenpeace Czech Republic. "The most frightening possibility is, that the repairs may have been covered up by the suppliers, so that even Temelín owner CEZ and the SUJB are not aware of it!"

A month ago, former Temelín worker Ing. Zdenek Beck and Greenpeace revealed the fact that impulse pipes - with vital functions for measurement equipment - were attached under a wrong angle. This could lead to distortion of measured data in the Westinghouse control system. Even though CEZ and SUJB claim that there were no problems, heavy reconstruction of these tubes took place over the last weeks. Internal sources in Temelin state, however, that this as been done only partly and still not according to by Westinghouse prescribed settings. Jiri Tutter: "Workers in Temelín described how it was frantically tried to re-attach a large number of impulse tubes. This task appeared to be impossible and many pipes still have a wrong angle. This leaves Temelín with additional large risks when activated." Ing. Beck adds: "On top of this, only about 140 of the several thousands of tubes have been flushed to remove metal debris. This means that probably still kilograms of debris remain in the system, that could cause unpredictable reactions in the reactor vessel - for instance similar to the major accident in Jaslovske Bohunice in 1976."

These irregularities are part of a series that were revealed to Greenpeace by concerned workers and ex-workers from Temelín over the last months. SUJB and CEZ reacted on each of the allegations with a haughty "everything is under control". Jan Haverkamp, nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace: "We have tried to co-operate with SUJB on these issues, but SUJB is deaf for information from outside - even if presented with a siren. The German GRS study and the reaction of the German Government support our claim that SUJB and CEZ should slow down and address all problems instead of trying to cover them up in a mist of optimism. SUJB should be an independent body. Unfortunately, the Czech legal system does not provide any means of control on its functioning when this independence is under pressure. In the case of Temelin, this could lead to catastrophes."

For more information:

Greenpeace Czech Republic

Ing. Jiri Tutter, director: +420.2.24319667, +420.603.443140

Ir. Jan Haverkamp, nuclear campaigner: +420.604.257822 (English, German)