Slovenia is the world’s smallest nuclear state. A slogan that sounds good in car commercials for a small car (it has everything the big ones have) doesn’t sound so good when we talk about nuclear pollution of the environment.
In fact, Slovenia is so small that a possible nuclear disaster would threaten the entire country and part of four or five nearby countries.
Nuclear beginnings?
It has started with military nuclear ambitions. Yugoslavia wanted to have its own atomic bomb. In 1950, the first nuclear institute was founded with the goal of building an atomic bomb. In parallel, the civilian use of nuclear energy to conceal a military program was developing. Of the ten planned, the NPP NEK was the first and only nuclear power plant in Yugoslavia.
The idea of building atomic bombs stretched all the time from 1950 to 1981, and perhaps beyond. It began in Vinča near Belgrade, where a nuclear accident occurred in 1958. This accident was concealed from the public for many years, as the development of the atomic bomb was carried out in the utmost secrecy. Activities in the development of the atomic bomb were also carried out in Slovenia. The Institute of Physics, founded in 1946, was renamed to the Nuclear Institute “Jožef Stefan”. The wishes of politicians for their own atomic bomb were present, but, according to nuclear experts, they were not realistic.
Yugoslavia’s nuclear program began to shrink. Of the final two locations for nuclear power plants, Krško and Prevlaka, it was built only in Krško in Slovenia and is owned by Slovenia and Croatia, while the Croats have withdrawn from the construction of their nuclear power plant and remain a non-nuclear state, without nuclear obligations.
Slovenia has the largest share of protected areas
Natura 2000 is the nature conservation network of the European Union and one of the world’s largest protection areas. With Natura 2000, we preserve animal and plant species, habitat types and areas that are important at the Slovenian, European and global level. Natura 2000 is a social commitment to protect nature and how.
The Natura 2000 network covers more than 18% of land and almost 6% of marine territory in all 27 Member States of the European Union. Member States submit data to the Natura 2000 European database of protected areas and fauna and flora once a year.
Slovenia has the largest share of protected areas. The share of Natura 2000 covers 37% of the total territory and is the highest among all nuclear states. The share of protected areas of European countries is presented at Share of Natura 2000 in other countries. To illustrate, in France the proportion of protected areas is 13% and in Finland 10%, both are below the EU average.
The smallest nuclear state with the largest proportion of protection areas
Dose nuclear facilities and a protection zone fit together? No, it doesn’t. This is also why the placement of nuclear facilities in space is so challenging. And yet, Slovenia is (probably) the only nuclear country without nuclear waste repositories in the world. Not because of the problems of placing landfills in space, but because of the unpreparedness of the nuclear profession for nuclear safety. The most eloquent quote is “perhaps in two hundred years they will surely find a technical solution“, which indicates an ignorant attitude of politicians and economics towards nuclear safety and the safe disposal of radioactive waste.
Slovenia is too small for nuclear hazard. The most opportune moment has come to shut down a nuclear power plant, let us take advantage of it.
