Greenpeace, Energiaklub to appeal Paks environmental protection permit
Budapest, September 30 (MTI) – Greenpeace Hungary and Energiaklub will submit a joint appeal to the authority that has issued an environmental protection permit for the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant, the two organisations said on Friday.
The announcement about the Government Office of Baranya County issuing the permit was made by the government commissioner for the upgrade project on Thursday.
Obtaining the permit from the environmental protection authority shows the upgrade meets EU and Hungarian rules on protecting the environment and nature, said Attila Aszódi.
He noted that the process of making the environmental impact study for the upgrade had started late in 2014. The international consultation phase wound up late last August, he added.
Greenpeace and Energiaklub, however, said that the impact study had failed to clarify a number of major issues and had based its assertions on “unfounded, outdated and mistaken” pretexts.
The study does not clarify, for instance, the treatment of radioactive waste or the unfavourable temperature change the project may cause to the Danube’s water, they said. It has also failed to clarify several other environmental effects, the two organisations said in a statement.
They noted that they had earlier submitted as a party included in the licensing process their respective opinions about the impact study to the Baranya County government office. The government office, in line with the regulations, must consider these, they added.
Hungary is building two more blocks at the Paks plant with financing from Russia.
Source: MTI
Already it has been demonstrated that the current cooling is insuffient, and reactor blocks had to be shut down. The water in the in the river was already reacing the maximum limits. How are they going to cool the additional reactor and still observe the ecological requirements? Quite frankly, the whole project is just a ruse to line the pockets of the contractors, so hopefully the reactor will never be started even if it is built. It’s just another Orban vanity project, and one that will leak more money into the pockets of the contractors, rather than pollutants into the ecosystem.