AFP, 20 gennaio
Austrians Gather to Condemn Controversial Czech Nuclear Plant
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=262004

VIENNA, Jan 20, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Hundreds of Austrians who turned out at the Czech border Friday to protest a controversial Czech nuclear plant and threatened further action if their objections went unheard, officials said.

About 500 people gathered at the Austro-Czech checkpoint Wullowitz for a three-hour protest, local police said.

The demonstrators believe the nuclear plant, which lies just over the Austrian border, is unsafe.

The Czech government approved a safety and environmental study of Temelin last Wednesday, as part of an agreement struck with Vienna last month. It is due to be completed in May or June, before the plant starts commercial operations.

But the anti-nuclear campaigners' chief spokesman Josef Puehringer told AFP: "You cannot carry out a serious, thorough study of a plant like Temelin in less than six months.

"They think they can commission this and that's their duty over with. It's very unsatisfactory."

He acknowledged he had not seen the details of the study, but added: "We are disappointed with Prague, but also with Vienna, and the EU, for just letting Temelin go on.

"Something needs to be done, and today's demo is just a taster of what is to come," he warned.

Last November, demonstrators blocked border crossings between Austria and the Czech Republic to protest last year's start-up of the plant.

Austrians voted in a 1978 referendum to be nuclear free, and feel themselves under great threat.

Temelin began some operations in October and was connected to the Czech national power grid in December, but it has not yet started producing power commercially.

Construction of the plant, designed to comprise four Russian-style VVER-1000 megawatt reactors, was started in the 1980s, but was totally reviewed after the collapse of communism, and updated with new technology.

The plant is currently shut for three weeks for an overhaul. Czech authorities say experts are to service various parts of the first reactor.

It has suffered a series of technical problems since starting up, the latest on January 12 when an oil leak caused a fire. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)