The Czech Republic’s Nuclear Energy Dilemma

Today, energy from nuclear power plants provides for roughly a third of the Czech Republic’s overall electricity consumption. There are in fact six operating nuclear power plant units – four of them have been operating for twenty years in Dukovany, and two of them have been operating for almost ten years in Temelín, in south Bohemia. The rest of the Czech Republic’s energy needs are met by domestic coal as well as imported gas. But the country has recently begun to wrestle with how it will meet its energy needs in the future, and more nuclear power seems to be topping the list of options. Yet, nuclear power remains an understandably controversial choice – with both domestic opponents as well as the country’s vocal non-nuclear neighbour Austria wanting to steer the country clear of this option.

Dana Drábová, photo: CTK

Dana Drábová is the chairwoman of the State Institute for Nuclear Safety (SUJB). She believes that nuclear power is likely to be a key part of the country’s energy mix for some time:

“Nuclear power plants are a substantial part of the Czech Republic’s energy mix and that will be the case for the next several decades. Because the expected operating lifespan of nuclear power plants is now around fifty years. But the main condition for the operation of a nuclear power plant here in the Czech Republic, and this is well recognised by the government, is a high level of nuclear safety.”

Václav Pačes is the head of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has been tasked by the government to prepare a forecast for the Czech Republic’s energy future up to 2030 and a so-called “vision” extending to 2050. In the report, delivered to the government this year, a recommendation was made for more nuclear power, which would move the country away from imports from geopolitically sensitive Russia, and also more clean coal technology:

Václav Pačes and Mirek Topolánek, photo: CTK

“What the Czech Republic must really decide is whether we are going to be an exporter or importer of energy in the future. And our analysis shows that one of the main problems that the Czech Republic is going to face is heating. We have enough brown coal in this country, but there are limits to mining that coal in places and if these limits are kept, then maybe in forty years, there will be no usable domestic coal for our power stations or heating stations.”

And what about the controversial option of more nuclear power?

“What we propose is that the government really should begin a serious discussion on building more nuclear power plants. Whether they will be in Temelín or at other locations we don’t concern ourselves with. It would be two one-thousand Megawatt blocks and if these would be built, then almost sixty percent of our electricity supply would be covered by nuclear power.”

Dukovany, photo: CTK

Much of the other forty percent would then be provided by coal, albeit with more efficient refitted systems to increase efficiency and lower pollution. Meanwhile, non-nuclear Austria remains the most vocal critic of Czech nuclear power – with both Temelín and Dukovany uncomfortably close to its borders. Austria is attempting to address its energy future with a greater reliance on natural gas, but may not be able to fulfil its Kyoto Treaty commitments to lower CO2 emissions. The Czech Republic with its more carbon friendly nuclear power, as well as its post-communist cleanup is likely to fare far better in cutting its CO2 emissions short-term. Jakub Kašpar is a spokesperson for the Czech Environment Ministry, currently in the hands of the Green party and its leader Martin Bursík. Both are strongly opposed to any nuclear expansion in the Czech Republic:

“Nuclear energy has some serious problems. The first one is that it is very centralised, and we will need much more decentralised production of energy and electricity in the future. The second one is that nuclear power is very expensive in terms of investment costs – neither of the two existing nuclear stations was built without state money and we are not convinced that such investments by the state are an effective use of money.”

Building a nuclear power station takes ten to fifteen years and would indeed be a significant commitment for the Czech Republic. But Jakub Kašpar points to an even greater concern about the Czech nuclear industry:

“The most serious problem is that our nuclear industry has not yet solved the problem of its used fuel, or nuclear waste. There is no stable deposit of spent fuel from our nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic. At present, the waste is in interim storage in Temelín and Dukovany and that is a problem we have to take into account when we are planning a new energy strategy for the future.”

And no Czech municipality wants to create a permanent storage site for the nuclear waste. The arguments are often that geological considerations prevent such facilities from being housed in certain places, but the fact that constituents would likely boot any local government out of office that seriously proposed such a site are equally valid. Jakub Kašpar believes that the solution lies in efficiency savings:

Temelín

“The Czech economy is very energy intensive – 45 percent more so than is the EU average. This means that we have a huge source of energy just in energy savings and from our point-of-view, we have to use this kind of source before we plan for something as expensive as more nuclear power.”

The Czech Republic currently produces about six percent of its energy from renewable energy sources- about half of what some analysts believe is available. But there are limits. Unlike northern Germany, wind power prospects are limited, and unlike Austria hydro-electric power is also not viewed as widely feasible. So, despite the opposition, is more nuclear power inevitable? Dana Drábová of the State Institute for Nuclear Safety believes that it is a logical choice:

“As concerns the building of new plants; this is still an open question. The energy community supports the strategy to have one or two more nuclear power units, because our domestic resources are very limited. We still have quite a lot of coal-fired power plants depending on rather bad quality light coal, and from the point-of-view of addressing climate change it is legitimate to seek low-emission technologies.”

European Commission

Science Academy head Václav Pačes agrees, and believes that opposition to this choice is overstated:

“The general feeling in this country is that we need nuclear energy. And the vast majority of people support this in the Czech Republic. We are fortunate in that we do not even have a very fundamental series of groups who oppose this. So I believe that our society would accept and even support two new blocks being built in Temelín or some other location.”

The government’s official energy conception – something that all of the coalition parties including the Greens have agreed upon – makes clear that shutting down the existing nuclear power plants at Temelín and Dukovany is out of the question. However, there is also a specific guarantee that no new nuclear power units will be built. The very existence of the current government actually depends on that latter provision. Jakub Kašpar again:

“We strongly believe that the Czech Republic will be able to meet its future energy demands without new nuclear plants. Of course, we can discuss new nuclear reactors of the fourth and fifth generation, but we don’t think that there is a valid reason to discuss new reactors of the current generation. We very strongly oppose the building of new nuclear reactors in the Czech Republic.”

But Dana Drábová believes that without nuclear power, the country will face some very serious problems:

“If every third light bulb in the country is on because of nuclear power, then it will be very difficult to change this energy mix in the short-term. So I expect that nuclear power will be part of the energy mix for the next few decades.”

She also argues that inherent risk is not necessarily inherent danger:

“I think that the future is to use everything in proper balance; what is technologically mature – and nuclear energy of course is after some fifty years of operation in the world. Nuclear power is a part of the mix and in this mix there should be green energy and there should be renewable sources. But nobody in the world knows of a truly clean source of energy; every source has benefits but also risks.”