Upper Austria province to take CEZ to court over Temelin

The province of Upper Austria has announced it is going ahead with a lawsuit against the Czech power utility CEZ, which owns and operates the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power station. The governor of Upper Austria, Josef Puehringer, said the province would seek a court ruling to prevent CEZ from putting Temelin into full operation in its present technical state. Mr Puehringer said the suit would be against the effects of a possible incident at Temelin, which has suffered serious technical problems since going into test operation last year. A lawyer from the province said if the lawsuit was successful, CEZ would be unable to put Temelin into commercial operation or even continue with tests without paying large fines.

Austrian power utility says German partner will pull plug on Czech electricity

Meanwhile a spokesman for Austria's state-owned electricity utility Verbund has claimed the German power company E.ON is planning to halt electricity imports from the Czech Republic because of German opposition to the Temelin plant. The spokesman said E.ON was pulling out of contracts with CEZ on the supply of electricity to Germany. A CEZ spokesman denied the claims, saying the company was still in talks with the German firm. E.ON is CEZ's largest foreign customer, accounting for approximately one quarter of Czech electricity exports.