BRUSSELS, July 15 (Reuters) - The European Commission recommended on Tuesday that Slovakia improve the safety of two planned new units at its Mochovce nuclear power plant.
"Even though the project shows compliance with current national regulations as well as international recommendations ... the Commission recommended a set of additional measures," Commission spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny told a briefing.
Journalist Goldirova sent, from Brussels, a report on a letter written by the Slovak prime minister, in which he warned the European Commission that, unless it soon announced its position on the completion of Mochovce [nuclear power station], the Slovak Government would have to "consider all options, including a proposal to postpone the decommissioning of the second block of the V1 reactor [in Jaslovske Bohunice nuclear power station] until 2010." It follows from the report that Prime Minister Fico now behaves in the same way towards the EU as he behaves in domestic politics.
BRATISLAVA, June 16 (Reuters) - Italy's utility Enel said on Monday it has boosted the installed capacity at Slovakia's nuclear power plant Mochovce by seven percent to ease the country's electricity import needs. Enel, majority owner of leading domestic power firm Slovenske Elektrarne which operates Mochovce, said the capacity boost was to offset the decommissioning of two units at the country's oldest nuclear power plant at Jaslovske Bohunice.
BRATISLAVA (AFP) - Environmental group Greenpeace will lodge a legal challenge to Slovak authorities' go ahead for the completion of two nuclear power stations in the country's west, a representative said Wednesday.
The organisation will complain to the supreme court against the go ahead for completion of Mochovce's third and fourth nuclear reactors without prior environmental impact assessments being carried out.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Brussels has called on EU member states to end the six-year deadlock over one of Europe's touchiest topics and agree common nuclear safety rules as well as ways in which to store nuclear waste.
"It is an absolute necessity," EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs told EUobserver on Thursday (22 May), while blaming EU governments for a lack of political will to give Brussels a stronger say on the issue.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has filed a complaint with the European commission, alleging illegal state aid in the development of the controversial Mochovce nuclear power plant.
"Market-distorting measures" were put in place by Slovak authorities to persuade Slovak electricity utility Slovenske elektrarne, in which Italian firm Enel has a majority share, to participate in "what would otherwise have been an unviable and unattractive project," Greenpeace claims.
The completion of the third and fourth blocks at the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia can meet difficulties, reports Hospodarske Noviny daily. Apart from traditionally anti-nuclear oriented Austrian neighbour, objections are raised also by Green Fraction at the European Parliament. They say that Mochovce design and its equipment is not based on accident and earthquake safety considerations. In addition, they claim that Mochovce construction is far too advanced to be retrofitted to comply with international safety standards.
VIENNA Thomson Financial - Greenpeace activists 'walled in' a branch of one of Austria's largest banks, Erste Bank AG, in the centre of Vienna on this morning in protest against its financing of the Mochovce nuclear plant in Slovakia.
A group of around thirty activists erected a brickwall in front of the bank's main entrance on one of the capital's busy pedestrian zones and called for Erste Bank to cancel its loan to the Slovak utility Slovenske Elektrarne.
PRAGUE. FEBRUARY 4. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Dutch bank ING has declined to comment on a report it will not invest any money into a project to upgrade Slovakia's Soviet-era Mochovce nuclear power plant (NPP), while remaining lead bank in a USD 800 mln corporate revolving credit facility secured by Slovak utility Slovenske elektrarne (SE) chiefly for that purpose.
London, 31 January: Dutch bank ING has said it will not finance a nuclear power project in Slovakia, which the country’s own nuclear regulator has said does not comply with modern safety standards.
