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Prague, 5 April 2001
- Greenpeace today asked the highest state prosecutor in Prague to examine the procedures used by regional investigators in Ceske Budejovice (Budweis) that dealt with a criminal complaint against unknown related to an infringement of nuclear safety in the Temelin nuclear power plant. This investigation was put on hold shortly after the start-up of Temelin. Greenpeace has strong indications that this interruption of the investigation did not happen according to the rules and could have been politically motivated.
"We have strong indications, that the investigation of this case by the Czech State Police has not been carried out completely regularly", says Jiri Tutter, director of Greenpeace Czech Republic. "It is surprising that the investigators refused to take very important concrete information into account, that we gave them in written form. They did not interview key people and did not track down all the documentation that was needed for a thorough investigation into the case," informs Tutter.
Last summer, Greenpeace laid its hands upon information that indicated that key-documentation about repairs may have been manipulated in such a way that mistakes are obscured. Greenpeace received furthermore alarming correspondence from the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SUJB), in which this highest control organ clearly stated that documentation about the repair, e.g. welding work, indeed is incomplete, that it contains mistakes and also proves that prescribed technical procedures have not been adhered to.
"We fear, that nobody today knows with certainty, whether the quality of one of the most critical welds in the nuclear part of the Temelin power station is indeed sufficient," warns Tutter.
The information, on the basis of which Greenpeace requested criminal investigation against unknown, was published by the environmental organisation in press releases already last year August. Because of these press releases, Temelin operator CEZ directly sued the Czech Greenpeace office for "damaging the firm's good name" and demanded 5 million Czech Crowns (around USD 150.000) compensation. Last week, however, CEZ suddenly - literally on the last day - withdrew its charges against Greenpeace (1).
"CEZ played a bit of a game with us," remarks Tutter. "We don't think at all, that this was a friendly gesture from their side. CEZ already has a lot on its mind with the well-known problems around the vibrating turbine and the expected attacks from the side of the American lawyer Fagan. They, of course, wanted to prevent that these problems would also come into the public debate, because these are problems in the nuclear part of the reactor, which are key nuclear safety issues. We therefore demanded today from the general director of CEZ, Jaroslav Mil, that he opens up all concerning documentation," concluded Tutter.
Further information:
Jiri Tutter, director Greenpeace Czech Republic, tel.: +420.2.24 31 96 67
Jan Haverkamp, nuclear campaigner for Central Europe, mobile: +420.603.569 243
Vaclav Vasku, mobile: +420.603.414 739
Internet: http://www.greenpeace.cz
(1) CEZ sues Greenpeace because of press releases on:
* 14 August 2000
* 28 August 2000
CEZ reinforced its complaint on the basis of a press release on:
* 9 October 2000
All press releases can be found in the Czech language on Internet:
14/8/2000: http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/00/000814.htm
28/8/2000: http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/00/000828.htm
9/10/2000: http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/00/001009.htm
You can request a copy of the English translations by sending an e-mail to jan.haverkamp@ecn.cz or calling +420.603.569 243 (Jan Haverkamp)
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