A communist-era nuclear power plant that Croatia shares with Slovenia is safe, Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic insisted Monday during a visit to Lithuania.
A communist-era nuclear power plant that Croatia shares with Slovenia is
safe, Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic insisted Monday during a visit to
Lithuania.
"There are no official requirements to close this nuclear plant because
it's very safe," Josipovic told reporters at a press conference with his
Lithuanian counterpart Dalia Grybauskaite.
"We are watching the situation constantly, and guarantees for our security
and for the security of our neighbors are very firm," he said.
Croatia
has a
share in a plant at
Krsko
,
Slovenia
,
which came online in the 1980s when the two republics were part of
Yugoslavia
and
provides 15% of
Croatia
's
electricity. The plant was built with help from the
U.S.
, as
Yugoslavia
steered between the West and the
Soviet Union
.
The facility, long under fire from environmentalists in neighboring
Austria
, is
back in the spotlight as the nuclear crisis in
Japan
raises jitters about the global atomic sector.
The plant lies on European Union territory--
Slovenia
joined in 2004--and so is subject to "stress tests" agreed last week
by the 27-nation bloc.
"The plant will be monitored and the details will be available to all.
Croatia
, just
like its neighbor, has pledged to guarantee security and keep the public
informed," Grybauskaite said.
Lithuania
has
been pushing for checks on the nuclear industry to cover neighboring non-EU
nations, and has expressed repeated concerns about plans for plants in
Belarus
and
Russia
's
Kaliningrad
territory, near its borders.
Lithuania
shut
down its only nuclear plant--a communist-era facility--in 2009 under the terms
of its EU entry. It aims to build a new one by 2020 with
Poland
and
fellow
Baltic states
Latvia
and
Estonia
.
Lithuania
is a
staunch supporter of EU membership for other states from the former communist
bloc, and Josipovic's visit focused on
Croatia
's
drive to join the bloc.
Croatia
hopes
to join the EU in 2012, and Josipovic reaffirmed that it aimed to wrap up
accession talks by June this year.
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