nuclear-news

Bulgaria’s nuclear referendum farce

The Belene nuclear project, Bulgaria’s radioactive political issue The Sofia Globe,  OCT 19 2012 by CLIVE LEVIEV-SAWYER The farce into which Bulgaria’s planned national referendum on whether to proceed with the Belene nuclear power station has rapidly descended is an illustration of just how radioactive the issue has proved for every government and political party that has touched it.

At this writing, both the opposition socialists that drove the
campaign to hold the referendum, and the government that has endorsed
the idea, stand to lose. The political pitfalls are made that much
deeper by the timing of a referendum just months before Bulgarians
will go to the polls in the 2013 parliamentary election.

A long look at the history of the Belene saga is a reminder that the
word “nuclear” is an anagram of the word “unclear”.

This has been amply illustrated in recent days, amid the dual disputes
about the wording of the referendum question and whether the
referendum could be constitutional, but also is illustrated by the
unfortunate antecedents of the Belene project itself…. The project
was approved by Bulgaria’s communist government in March 1981.
According to environmental lobby groups that have tracked the project,
Soviet scientists had misgivings about Belene, notably on the topic of
its location – the anti lobby likes to point out that in Svishtov,
about 11km from the Belene site, a 1977 earthquake led to a large
number of deaths.

But at the time the Bulgarian Academy of Science enthusiastically
endorsed the project, although this position was reversed immediately
after the end of the Cold War…..
Unanswered questions

The sudden emergence of a US-based consortium shook up the saga a few
months after the ostensible death knell for Belene.

US embassy reaction to the emergency of this consortium was reserved,
with current ambassador Marcie Ries saying that in such circumstances,
normal practice is to do due diligence on a would-be investor in a
project of this scale.

Yet suddenly a turnabout was going on within the ruling party. The
majority in Parliament were in favour of going ahead with negotiations
with the investor, and then, um, suddenly they weren’t, because there
was going to be a referendum.

The confusion was partly understandable. Some within the government
and state administration had seemed well-informed about the existence
of the would-be investors and others seemed, partly or entirely, out
of the loop….. The right-wing Blue Coalition is among those that
have questioned the constitutionality of the proposed exercise of the
referendum. …
Other European countries have made their own choices, either at
government level or most recently in Lithuania, by referendum (they
said no).

One way or the other, Bulgaria eventually will finally make its own
decision. Until then, all that is certain is that Belene has proved to
be – to refer to that other hazardous substance that glows in popular
culture – political Green Kryptonite to all who came near it.
http://sofiaglobe.com/2012/10/19/the-belene-nuclear-project-bulgarias-radioactive-political-issue/

October 19, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, politics