PRAGUE (dpa) – Reports about problems at the Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia have all the predictability of a ritual.
For example, the operators of the plant described a spillage of hundreds of litres of oil in early April as a “mishap” but said “intensive repairs” were under way.A few days later, as the power plant was being revved up again, new problems cropped up at other places and the reporting ritual was repeated. When the Temelin plant was started up for test runs about six months ago, approval for it among the Czech population was widespread. In view of the series of problems, the level of acceptance has clearly dropped. The public relations problems are nothing when compared with the engineering headaches in the 1,000-megawatt turbine driven by reactor number one. At a certain level of revolutions per minute, the turbine starts to develop dangerous vibrations. “The machinery vibrations are really worrisome,” admits Karel Boehm, deputy director of the Czech nuclear safety authority. He stressed that for the time being his office will not be issuing any final permission for the plant to go on stream. A nuclear power plant with a defective turbine is “like a car with flat tyres”, Boehm said. Minister of Industry Miroslav Gregr would find himself pretty much alone if, as the Social Democrat recently told the newspaper Pravo, he were to “kneel in awe before Temelin”. While he describes the nuclear plant as a “technological masterpiece”, most Czechs are more down to earth. They favour the facility as a future cheaper source of electricity than fossil fuels. Experts appointed by the Czech government insisted in a 372-page report issued April 11 that the nuclear power station poses no “important” environmental risk to the plant’s immediate surroundings. Among Czechs, the state-run utility company’s work on the project so far has come in for derision rather than serious opposition. A letter to the editor of one Czech newspaper sarcastically referred to Temelin as “the world’s biggest vibrator” in view of the dangerously swaying pipelines and turbine. In Austria to the south, people are watching developments with less humour. Since the Temelin plant is only 70 kilometres from the Austrian border, there were protest demonstrations there when testing started on the facility last October. Nuclear power opponents regard blockading border traffic as a legitimate means of protest, but the government in Vienna is holding back from an ultimatum to shut down Temelin. “Support in Prague for Temelin is crumbling in any case,” said an Austrian diplomat in the Czech capital. “In view of the defects, time is now working on our side.” In view of the 98.6 billion korunas (2.5 billion dollars) in construction costs, Temelin ought go on stream quickly if it is to start paying for itself. According to a report in the newspaper Pravo, the original target date in June for the commercial start-up has been pushed back to September owing to turbine problems. Every day of plant operation without any electricity production costs Prague 20 million korunas (507,000 dollars). Amid all the technical problems, Temelin could turn out financially to be a bottomless pit for the government.
