By Zoltán Dujisin
BUDAPEST, Mar 8 2007 (IPS)

The Czech Republic is once more under Austrian pressure over its controversial Temelin nuclear plant, which many want decommissioned.

Temelin is a village in south Bohemia situated only 60 km away from the border with Austria, one of the few nuclear-free countries in Europe.

Austrians, supported by various Czech activists, are almost unanimous in wishing Temelin’s closure, claiming its combination of Soviet design and Western fuel and safety technology is hazardous.

The construction of four reactors for a nuclear plant was initiated by communist authorities in the 1980s, and since the collapse of state socialism the plant’s existence has been a recurrent source of tension between Prague and Vienna.

Since the 1990s the plant’s original plan has been significantly modified in order to bring the power plant to Western standards, but the process of harmonising technology has resulted in several sensitive changes to its structure and organisation.

After an apparently cordial meeting between Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and his Czech counterpart Mirek Topolanek in Prague Feb. 27, the two prime ministers agreed to set up a joint Austrian-Czech commission to control operation of the plant.

Activists who favour a harder approach by Vienna were disappointed with the Austrian Chancellor’s soft stance.

But only a few days later a disappointed Gusenbauer protested to Topolanek for failing to inform Austria of a radioactive leak in the first unit of the Temelin nuclear power station the same day of the meeting.

It took two days for the Czech government to release information on the accident. Gusenbauer told Topolanek this was not his idea of the “open and friendly talks” they had agreed upon, and recalled their bilateral commitment to share information.

The misunderstanding has caused much resentment in Austria, where the Austrian Greens chairman Alexander Van der Bellen went as far as calling it “a hostile act on the part of Czechs.”

“It seems that Czech authorities always try to hide some problems, they don’t act very independently and they don’t cooperate with requests by civic groups to share information on Temelin,” Hana Gabrielova, a Czech activist at the Association for Environmental Conservation told IPS.

“It’s difficult to say whether Temelin is safe or unsafe, but Austrians don’t trust it because Czech authorities are not open about it and public information is not reliable,” the activist said.

Most Austrians believe the Czech Republic has violated a 2000 agreement in which the Czech and Austrian prime ministers, under European Union (EU) supervision, vowed to jointly monitor the safety of Temelin and share information.

The agreement stipulated that Prague would take the necessary steps to upgrade security at the plant in exchange for Vienna not blocking the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU in 2004.

Last December the Austrian parliament, claiming violation of the agreement, called on Vienna to take legal steps against the Czech Republic unless it submits fresh evidence of safety.

This came as a reaction to a recent Czech decision which grants final building approval for use of the station, but the effort is futile as the 2000 agreement is simply a protocol and lacks the validity of international agreements.

Prague has threatened in the past it would end cooperation with Austria if Vienna tries to takes the case to court, and in spite of recurrent malfunctions, the Czechs deny problems with the plant’s safety.

The Czech Republic is also annoyed by a series of recurrent road blockades on the Austrian border.

Austrian anti-nuclear activists have frequently resorted to road blockades at border crossing points with the Czech Republic, with Prague claiming their actions violate EU principles of free movement of people and goods.

Czech officials have also indirectly pointed at what they see as a particular Austrian obsession with Temelin, as 23 other plants are in operation in countries surrounding Austria, all of them older than Temelin.

Some in Austria agree. “There is no evidence Temelin poses a greater danger than any other plant in Slovakia, Hungary or Slovenia, though opposing nuclear power in general is an understandable stance,” Anton Pelinka, director of the Vienna-based Institute of Conflict Research told IPS.

Pelinka believes nationalism is playing a role in both sides’ mistrust. “Austria is proud of being the first country which decided not to have nuclear plants on its territory, and that became part of its national identity” whereas “Czechs use Austria as a scapegoat” for the anti-EU stances the Czech President seems to stands for.

“Both Czechs and Austrians don’t try to understand each others’ perspective,” Pelinka says. But Austria’s fixation with Temelin “is not logically explainable, unless you explain it as the Austrians having a problem with the Czech Republic.”

Besides old historical grudges, Pelinka notes that “among all neighbouring states, the Czech Republic is the one in which more Austrians have family roots.”

Over the 19th and 20th centuries many Czechs moved to Austria and quickly Germanised. “There is a collective memory of over-assimilation and of being ashamed of their Czech background,” Pelinka said.

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