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Prague, 6 June 2002
- Tomorrow morning, Greenpeace will ask the High Court in Prague Pankrac to order access to an internal study by the State Nuclear Safety Office SUJB that indicates a safety related fault in the Temelín nuclear power station. Greenpeace has four times asked access to the report without avail. The organisation claims that SUJB diverts the attention by pointing the public to an external report that did not address the problems indicated by Greenpeace.
"We have been asked by many why we continue with this case," says Greenpeace's Campaign Director in the Czech Republic Jan Haverkamp, "but seeing the pertinent lies and inadequate controls from the side of SUJB does not leave us another choice. The problems we have pointed out over the last two years have a high relevance for nuclear safety. When SUJB so openly tries to play down the seriousness by keeping its own incriminating information away from the public, this undermines the total nuclear safety culture in the Czech Republic." He concludes that on the basis of the current information, Temelín's first block should not be allowed commercial operation early next week. "Greenpeace calls on SUJB to show courage, admit that it is not infallible and open up its own investigation results to the public. The Czech Republic is not served when this scandal drags on further," Haverkamp concludes.
In the summer of 2000, Greenpeace received information from a Temelín worker that one of the main cooling pipes to the reactor of block 1 was welded 180 wrong, cut loose and re-welded. Documentation was changed to cover up this illegal repair. In 2001 SUJB inspectors finished a study into the case, but instead of publishing this, SUJB commissioned Temelín operator CEZ with a new study that addressed welding problems in general but failed to physically test the welding seam indicated by Greenpeace's witness. Also the police in Ceske Budejovice was put on a wrong track by SUJB or CEZ with a wrong welding seam number (1).
Greenpeace has four times asked access to the study carried out by SUJB inspectors on the basis of the law 106/1999 Sb. on access to information that gives citizens access to State documents, as well as on the basis of law 123/1998 Sb. that gives citizens access to environment related information. All requests were refused with changing and often conflicting argumentation. Greenpeace now turns to court on the basis of the same laws to force SUJB to make its inspectors' report available to the public. Legal support comes from Mgr. Vaclav Vlk of the law firm Krejcik and Vlk.
Further information:
Ing. Jiri Tutter, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the Czech Republic [Czech, English]: +420.2.2431 9667, e-mail: jiri.tutter@cz.greenpeace.org
Ir. Jan Haverkamp, Campaign Director of Greenpeace in the Czech Republic [English, German, Dutch, Czech]: +420.603.569 243 (mobile), e-mail: jan.haverkamp@cz.greenpeace.org
Vaclav Vasku, Press spokesperson for Greenpeace in the Czech Republic: +420.63.414 739 (mobile), e-mail: vaclav.vasku@cz.greenpeace.org
Notes for the editor:
(1) In English: Jiri Tutter, Vaclav Vasku, Jan Haverkamp, Unsettling facts on Temelín, Factsheet, version 2.2, March 2002 (available on request). In Czech: Ing. J. Tutter, Dipl. Ing. Jan Haverkamp, Tajná oprava svaru potrubí primárního okruhu s reaktorovou nádobou na 1. bloku jaderné elektrárny Temelín, (Praha) December 2001, on internet: http://www.greenpeace.cz/temelin/aktax.htm
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