Temelin increases capacity as Austrians launch hunger strike

Austrian anti-nuclear protesters in the town of Friedstadt have launched a hunger strike to protest the Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear power plant, at a time when technicians at the plant are busy increasing capacity at the nuclear facility. Each of the plant's twin units is expected to be operating at full capacity by April after years of tests and delays, a spokesman for the CEZ power company has said; Unit 1 was idle in December to save fuel, while Unit 2 has been undergoing rotor repairs. The dozen Austrian protesters taking part in the hunger strike say it will last five days. Meanwhile, one organiser said an extended hunger strike would begin in April unless the European Union and the Czech Republic negotiate a new plan for Temelin as part of the EU enlargement treaty. The protest is the first hunger strike in a long series of anti-Temelin demonstrations on the Czech-Austrian border dating from the summer of 2000. Austrian protestors believe the plant is unsafe because it combines Soviet-era with more modern western technology.