Czech Republic’s last uranium mine officially closes

The Czech Republic’s last uranium mine in Rožná located about 50 kilometres northwest of Brno, officially closed on Thursday with a ceremony marking 60 years of uranium mining in the location. The Rožná mine, which is also the last uranium mine in Europe, went into operation in 1957 and has produced around 17 million tonnes of uranium since then. The Radioactive Waste Repository Authority has turned one part of the mine - beneath the village of Bukov into a special laboratory for tests that will help it build a final repository for spent nuclear fuel from the Temelín and Dukovany plants.