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On the occasion of the imminent tests, reactor 3 in Mochovce booting up is done by the environmental protection organization GLOBAL 2000 drew attention to the risky condition of the reactor with a night-time beamer campaign: Saturday marks the twelfth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster - triggered by the Control failure of the Japanese nuclear regulator. "We have known since Chernobyl and Fukushima at the latest: Nuclear disasters have international consequences - uniform and strict checks by independent international control bodies are required," says Reinhard Uhrig, anti-nuclear spokesman at GLOBAL 2000.
Concerned Engineers – Whistleblower from the Mochovce nuclear power plant construction project – report further sabotage and damage to the reactor.
After hasty partial repairs and approval by the Slovakian nuclear regulatory authority, the reactor should be brought up to full capacity by the end of April - with unpredictable effects on the untested equipment.
"The Slovakian criminal police are investigating because of botch with criminal intent on the construction site - at the beginning of 2020, during a raid, the Kripo with a hundred officers: inside into the running reactor and arrested several managers,” reports Reinhard Uhrig further. "Also because of two Ads from GLOBAL 2000 The Kripo special unit 'Elektro' is investigating - concerned engineers from the nuclear power plant have contacted us with explosive information, which we have passed on to the criminal police."
Risky and unreliable
The Mochovce reactor, construction of which began in 1985, is and remains special risky, since the reactor concept from the 1970s is completely outdated and, for example, cannot withstand a plane crash like the static analysis of an engineering office confirmed based on leaked blueprints. The reactors are also completely from Nuclear fuel from Russia dependent and there are unplanned shutdowns, like last year in more than half of the nuclear power plants in France, where cracks in the emergency cooling lines have to be repaired due to unforeseen cases of rust.
Nuclear regulatory reform needed
The criminal machinations and the botched construction in Mochovce was only carried out by the Slovak nuclear regulator randomly checked - this is irresponsible from an engineering perspective, especially for the high-risk nuclear technology. Further damaged signal cables of the reactor are currently being repaired. This is worrying, as the reactor is already operating at low power and malfunctions in the control lines can lead to serious incidents. In addition, rust-prone connections were discovered on other cooling water pipes of the highest safety class, which were welded with inferior material with criminal intent to save money. However, there is no right of access for complete international control of suspected cases - the national supervisory authority alone decides whether the reactor is to be put into operation or shut down.
"We call on Chancellor Nehammer and Energy Minister Gewessler to make the problem nuclear power plant in Mochovce a top priority, as in the current one Government program announced,” concludes Uhrig.
GLOBAL 2000 will continue to bring the recurring incidents in Mochovce to light and report them to the Slovak Criminal Police Office - in order to ensure control and security upgrades, even with the equally serious problems with the further construction of reactor 4.
Already after the extensive censorship of technical documentation in December 2017, GLOBAL 2000 had the Slovak court Lawsuit against the Slovak nuclear regulator filed, supported by the Slovakian legal NGO Via Juris and Windkraft Simonsfeld – this procedure is still ongoing.
You can find a making-off video of the campaign here.
Photo / Video: Global 2000.
