Slovaks end talks on Rosatom’s entry into nuclear project
Bratislava, Dec 29 (ČTK) — The Slovak Ministry of Economy has finished talks with Rosatom on the Russian company’s entry into a project of building a new nuclear power plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, the server Sme.sk has reported.
A new strategic partner may join the project, the server wrote.
“We’ve failed to come to a final point as the (Slovak) government cannot meet their demands at the moment and so we concluded the negotiations,” Economy Minister Tomáš Malatinský said in an interview for the Slovak news agency SITA.
“We, however, do not rule out resumption of the talks if they (Russians) modify their demands,”
The exclusive talks with Rosatom have thus ended.
The main problem was the issue of guarantees of the purchasing price of electricity from the new plant in Jaslovské Bohunice. This was one of Rosatom’s conditions to join the project.
The Slovak ministry is rejecting the guarantees.
The project continues, Malatinský said. “This means we’ve got the partner, (the Czech energy group) ČEZ, and the environmental (impact) study is in progress,” he added.
Slovakia had originally picked ČEZ as a partner for building a new plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, western Slovakia, and that is why in 2009 the government and the Czech company set up a joint venture, Jadrová energetická spoločnosť Slovenska (JESS). CEZ has a 49 percent stake and enjoys management control at JESS.
In January of the year ČEZ said its priority was the tender to build two new units at the Czech nuclear plant Temelin, in the south of Bohemia, near the Austrian border.
Rosatom was to replace ČEZ in the Slovak project.
