CRNKOVIĆ: CROATIA ALLEGEDLY PUSHING TRGOVSKA GORA PROJECT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

NOVI GRAD, MAY 21 /SRNA/ - The President of the "Green Team" Association from Novi Grad, Mario Crnković, told SRNA that a report on the implementation of the Croatian Fund's work program for financing the decommissioning and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel from the Krško Nuclear Power Plant is direct evidence that Croatia is already significantly advanced in the project.

"The official report on the implementation of the work program and financial report for 2025 clearly confirms that the Čerkezovac project has progressed far by the end of 2025. While in Geneva they unsuccessfully tried to convince everyone that BiH would be included 'early enough', their own document shows that Croatia has long been pushing key phases of the project behind closed doors, without real and timely inclusion of BiH", Crnković said. He added that Croatia published the document with a three-month delay, immediately in the morning after the conclusion of talks between delegations in Geneva. According to him, the report shows that the environmental impact study has been completed and sent for final review, that the main project design is almost finished, that safety analyses have already been reviewed by IAEA experts and that demolition of structures and concrete preparations for transport and storage of radioactive waste are already underway at the site. "This means that this is no longer a 'project in its initial phase', but a project that has in fact already been prepared for implementation. The essence of the problem here is very clear: you cannot say that BiH and its public will be included at some point in the future, while at the same time you are already bringing the project almost to completion in technical, logistical and institutional terms", Crnković believes. He stated that the official report, published while the BiH delegation had not yet returned from Geneva, undermines previous arguments presented on the issue. "They clearly show and prove that the project was already seriously prepared, while the rights of BiH and the affected public were pushed into a later, weaker and practically delayed phase", Crnković said. Crnković added that it is important to clearly distinguish between those who, "presenting themselves as Croatia, are pursuing their own interests by placing radioactive waste at the very border with BiH and neighboring countries". "Many in this process are hiding behind the state, but sooner or later they will have to answer to their country, and then to us as well. Our duty is to defend the right to life without compromise, before all international addresses, from courts to the United Nations", Crnković said. Croatia plans to store radioactive waste from the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, as well as existing institutional waste, at the Trgovska Gora site in the municipality of Dvor, on the very border with BiH.