Czech-Austrian commission on Temelin hits dead end

The Czech-Austrian parliamentary commission set up to address nuclear safety concerns in connection with the Temelin nuclear power plant in south Bohemia has run into serious problems. Milan Urban, one of the Czech representatives on the commission, refused to attend its second session after Austrian members of the commission refused to visit the Temelin nuclear power plant. Mr. Urban said the session would be an exercise in futility since the Austrian representatives only used the meetings to criticize the Czech side from afar. Two Austrian representatives walked out of the joint session on Monday after the commission's chairman excluded an anti nuclear activist from the debate on the grounds that it was a forum for experts not protesters. The two countries have been locked in a dispute over the Temelin power plant ever since it went into operation in the year 2,000.