Summary translated from the publication “osebni interesi, obljube, zagotovila” dated 27-03-2023. We saw an announcement in the media that, in connection with the intended construction of a nuclear power plant, assumes that there is a hurry because of “personal interests, promises, assurances”. This statement might be debatable if it were not based on facts.
A few days earlier, at the beginning of March 2023, Bojan Kumer, the Minister of Environment, Climate and Energy, announced the delay in the start of the construction of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (JEK2). He said that construction is not in too much of a hurry and there is nothing wrong if the timeline for the second block in Krško is delayed. Some opposition MPs reacted violently. Jernej Vrtovec convened a meeting of the Parliamentary Commission on the delay in procedures for JEK2, and Janez Janša said that the matter is ripe for criminal prosecution. The ministry rejects all accusations.
In a country where all parliamentary parties and the majority of non-parliamentary parties openly support nuclear energy, where the media glorifies nuclear energy, where censorship does not allow dissenting opinion, where the Minister of Infrastructure exceeded his powers and issued an energy permit for JEK2 without legal and professional basis, is the JEK2 timeline delay statement disputed?
Money, not morals and ethics
The nuclear vision is in the money. How to get as much money as possible and spend it as little as possible. That is why they build new nuclear power plants, but do not clean up the waste of the old ones. Someone else will do that, someday. They are planning to privatize the nuclear power plant. Not only in the cited Resolution from 2006, but also in the Energy Act EZ-1 from 2014. How many times is the nuclear power plant mentioned in the umbrella energy act? She is not mentioned at all. How many times was it mentioned in the previous EZ Energy Act, which was valid until 2014? Just once, but important.
Privately owned nuclear power plant
The old energy law forbade the privatization of nuclear power plants. The subsequent Energy Act of 2014 does not have this prohibition. Who was so bothered by this that they changed the law?
What’s wrong with a privately owned nuclear plant? The legitimate claim of private property is profit. But nuclear security is expensive. So, in order to achieve more profit, investment in security is reduced. This is exactly what happened in Fukushima, when management ignored tsunami safety warnings for years in favor of paying bigger dividends to shareholders. And if anyone thinks that the Slovenian nuclear regulator is stronger than the Japanese one, they are wrong. The combination, a private nuclear plant and a weak nuclear regulator, is a guarantee of a nuclear disaster.
Like in the comics of our youth
The price of the second block? Change.
€20 billion or a little more, we will make a deal.
A nuclear power plant is like a loan that will be repaid by great-grandchildren. Well, for the construction of the new JEK2 nuclear power plant, approximately 20 billion euros would have to be prepared, and for the entire new infrastructure, a lot more. Reserve capacities, part of ensuring the reliability and stability of the entire network, are not taken into account in the JEK2 investment, but are necessary investments. Despite the construction of JEK2, the distribution networks would have to be modernized, i.e. another 3.5 billion euros should be added to the investment in nuclear facilities.
… personal interests, promises, assurances …
The disputed sentence is: There is nothing wrong if JEK2’s timeline is delayed. In a contribution to POP TV (March 6, 2023, journalist Kaja Kobetič, POP TV), independent energy expert Matjaž Valenčič questioned the sincerity of those who would rush to build a new nuclear power plant.
TV-24 hours
Host Uroš Slak asked guest Jerne Vrtovac, former Minister of Infrastructure, about this point of view. “The point of view of the energy expert, Matjaž Valenčič, is that there are no reasons to rush with the nuclear plant now, unless there are some personal interests, promises, assurances… Did you, as infrastructure minister, perhaps give them to someone, the Americans?”
Jernej Vrtovec’s answers are eloquent:
- “I’m begging you, well… This is solely about ensuring energy independence for the next generations. The nuclear power plant is not just a project of one government, two governments, but a project… Basically, it would be the biggest project in Slovenia for the next hundred years. As for who will be the contractor and in what way, that comes in other phases, all with the placement procedures in the space and after the final decision on the investment itself. We have finally started the documentation, brought it to this stage, but I am really surprised that in some way only some technologies that are still under development are given an impression…”
- “The European Commission recognized this and said: nuclear energy is green.”
- “In the end, I myself am in favor of deciding whether or not to have a nuclear power plant in the second block, for citizens to decide in a referendum, that’s right!” Vrhovec completed its implementation.
Is doubt about sincerity justified?
…personal interests, promises, assurances… Please, well… This is solely about ensuring energy independence for the next generations.
In order to understand the above, let’s see what Mladina writes in the editorial What did Vrtovec and Janša promise?
Topical editorial:
There is no doubt that Vrtovec’s reaction and Janša’s conclusion are completely exaggerated in relation to Kumer’s statements. But here we should mention an unusual event from the beginning of December 2020. It was the visit of the then Foreign Minister Anže Logar to the USA, the newspaper Dnevnik reported on it as follows: “The Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar is somewhat surprisingly accompanied in Washington by the Minister of Infrastructure…
…in December 2020, Jernej Vrtovec signed a memorandum of understanding at the State Department regarding strategic civil nuclear cooperation. … the signed memorandum is a kind of non-binding political ticket that helps the American industry to open the door to the market, or a tool that helps the co-signatory countries to establish a partnership with the United States.
It goes on to say in the editorial (read it at least twice) that “the memorandum is only a visible part of the agreement, we still don’t know the actual talks.” But given the nature of the investment, today the reasons for Janša’s and Vrtovec’s disproportionate response can be found right here. Of course, they could also just be nuclear enthusiasts, but we highly doubt that. Their reaction is more indicative of the fact that there are apparently some agreements and expectations that the public knows nothing about – but of course they should. Janša’s and Vrtovec’s reaction should be a signal to the investigating authorities. They simply reacted to the apparently benign statement of the current minister”.
