PR: The Act on the involvement of municipalities in the selection of the repository is not in the government plan

Press Release by Platfom Against Deep Repository dated February 6, 2018

Thus the obligations stipulated by the Atomic Act or the promises given to the municipalities are not being fulfilled

In spite of alerting ministers Tomáš Hüner and Richard Brabec ^[1] to the issue, neither the Government Legislative Work Plan for 2018, nor the outlook for the years 2019 to 2021 presented at the Government meeting on February 7 do contain the draft Act on the involvement of municipalities in the repository site selection process. Municipalities and Associations in the Platform Against Deep Repository ^[2] perceive this as a breach of earlier promises and demand that the draft Act be prepared for discussion with the affected municipalities and submitted to the government by the end of June 2018.

Legal analyzes have shown that municipalities and the public do not have too much opportunity to defend the interests of their citizens in the case of an extraordinary project of a deep geological repository for high-level waste, which practically permanently and significantly affects the lives of the inhabitants of the selected region. This is the principle commonly used in many democratically developed countries, and certainly those that have already advanced in licensing a repository. Also, Council Directive 2011/70/EURATOM requires the public to be able to participate effectively in decision-making on the spent fuel and radioactive waste management. 

The draft Act had been discussed and prepared in the Government Working Group for Dialogue on the Repository since as early as 2011 and its adoption was recommended in September 2015 by the Government Council for Raw Materials and Energy Strategy. Nevertheless, the previous government rejected it and, by Resolution No. 27 of 16 January 2017, it instructed the Minister of Industry and Trade to "elaborate and submit to the Government a new draft Act on the involvement of municipalities in the high-level waste and spent fuel repository site selection process by 30th June 2018." A new Act on the involvement of municipalities in the repository site selection process is also included in a new Atomic Act ^[3].

In order to draw attention to the continuous troubled state actions towards the communities concerned, member municipalities and associations in the Platform Against Deep Repository decided to organize the 4th annual Joint Day Against Repository. It will take place on April 21, 2018.

Petr Nohava, a spokesman for the Platform Against Deep Repository, said: "What kind of future guarantee of safe and secure deep repository citizens of the communities concerned have, when the state is unable to fulfill its current promises?"

Further information can be provided by:

• Ing. Petr Nohava, Mayor of Pluhův Žďár and spokesman for the Platform Against Deep Repository - tel.: 725 972 632, e-mail:pnohava AT gmail DOT com^[4]

1. ↑ Open letter by the Platform Against Deep Repository to the 1st Deputy Prime Minister & Environment Minister Richard Brabec and Industry and Trade Minister Tomas Hüner of 24 January 2018
2. ↑ Platform Against Deep Repository associates 35 members (23 municipalities and 12 associations) and its aim is to enforce such a way of finding a solution that would be open, transparent and which by law would adequately guarantee the rights of the municipality and the public's rightful welfare. http://www.platformaprotiulozisti.cz/
3. ↑ New Atomic Act No. 263/2016 Coll., Par. Article 108 (4): "Procedure for establishing the exploration area for the disposal of radioactive waste in underground areas, the procedure for establishing the protected area for the disposal of radioactive waste in underground spaces, the procedure for authorizing the operation of the radioactive waste repository and the procedure to ensure respect for the interests of municipalities, to which the contribution from the nuclear account pursuant to Section 117 (1) belongs, and their citizens in these processes, shall be determined by a special act. ".
4. ↑ For protection against automatical email address robots searching for addresses to send spam to them this email address has been made unreadable for them. To get a correct mail address you have to displace "AT" by the @-symbol and "DOT" by the dot-character (".").