PR:Underground Research Laboratory Bukov - another 313 milion Czech crowns withdrawn from a nuclear account can be misused

=> CZECH version of this press release

Press release by Calla dated December 19, 2016 http://www.calla.cz/index.php?path=hl_stranka/tiskovky/2016&php=tz161219.php

Underground Research Laboratory Bukov-another 313 milion Czech crowns withdrawn from a nuclear account can be misused
'''Today, the government is to give an approval to provide 313 million CZK (259 million without VAT) from the nuclear account for state enterprise DIAMO without any public tender to ensure the operation of the Underground Research Laboratory (URL) Bukov until 2019. Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (RAWRA) commissioned the URL Bukov to be build in finishing underground uranium mines in Dolní Rožínka, where URL Bukov ought to serve for geological works associated with the siting process for a deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel. However, until this day there have not been developed and presented the results of technical-economic study of the suitability of this site for research program for a deep repository in URL Bukov, which should have been completed in 2016 with the ultimate standpoint of the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SONS) pursuant to Governmental Resolution no. 50/2016. In 2015, SONS himself questioned the investment in the URL Bukov. Draft project solutions for URL Bukov, including the necessary technical background, should also only be processed as part of a controversial project called "Research support for project solution for a deep repository", which is supposed to be provided for RAWRA by the Czech Technical University in Prague (ČVUT) .'''

What raises concerns is that the geological subsoil area at the Kraví hora site, where the URL Bukov has been built, differs significantly from the other potential six sites chosen for a deep repository in the Czech Republic. While the tunnel of URL Bukov is in metamorphic rocks, in all other sites there are igneous rocks. Moreover, as it turned out in case of URL Bukov, the geological environment in the site is very complicated, disturbed, and so the URL project had to be fundamentally changed twice in a short time period because of serious difficulties during the excavation. There is also the leakage of water in quantities that were not anticipated and flooded tunnels network is also connected to the mining site, which would exclude building a deep repository. Thus, there is a significant risk that the planned investment of 1.8 billion CZK from public funds is literally going to be buried underground.

Construction of URL Bukov is not in compliance with the valid national programme for radioactive waste management called "The Concept of RAW and SNF Management in the Czech Republic" approved by the government in 2002 . The Concept envisages the construction of an URL only in the final site for a deep repository, when it stipulates its goal: „To prepare all the project supporting documents in order to start a construction of the underground laboratory and to implement long-term experiments to substantiate and confirm the safety of a deep geological repository" by 2030.

We have alerted the public to another possible violation of the legislation about the decision to build the URL Bukov in our press release dated January 8, 2016 .

Edvard Sequens, energy consultant of Calla, said: ' „We support investment in research aiming at finding the safest solution to the problem of nuclear waste. However, there are growing doubts about whether the project URL Bukov is not withdrawing money from the nuclear account, without having served the declared objectives." '

 More information can be provided by: 
 * Ing. Edvard Sequens, Calla - Association for the Preservation of the Environment, email: [mailto:edvardDOTsequensATcallaDOTcz edvard DOT sequens AT calla DOT cz], tel.: +420 602 282 399

Information about the siting process for a deep repository and all the sites is available on: http://www.nechcemeuloziste.cz .

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