Croatia must
"lift the taboo" on nuclear power and have a broad debate on its
energy future, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Saturday.
Sanader's remarks to Austrian national radio came just days after a coolant
leak focused attention on Slovenia's Krsko nuclear reactor, located near the
Croatian border and jointly owned by both countries.
"I believe we will have to debate energy policy very shortly in Austria as well as in Croatia," Sanader said. "As part of that, we simply have to lift the
taboo on nuclear power."
He noted that his government has begun a review of Croatia's energy policy that
it expects to present to the public by October.
Western-built Krsko, which went online in the mid-1980s, is former Yugoslavia's only commercial nuclear reactor.
Austria, however, is unlikely to heed Sanader's call. Voters narrowly
rejected nuclear power in a 1978 referendum and Austria has often criticized
reactor safety in its ex-communist neighbours, notably at the Czech Republic's Temelin plant.
Sanader was to meet Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer in Vienna on Sunday,
hours before the two countries' football teams face off in the Austrian capital
in the Euro 2008 championship, dpa reported.
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