Czech municipalities in Vysočina challenge repository at Supreme Administrative Court

Municipalities in Vysočina, where a deep geological repository for nuclear fuel is being considered, have filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of the Environment (MŽP) with the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS). They have followed the example of municipalities in the Březový potok site in the Šumava region and Janoch near Temelín, which took the same step some time ago. They do not want the state’s Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (SÚRAO) to carry out drilling and other geological work in their territory. The Czech News Agency (ČTK) was told this by Zdeněk Souček, spokesperson for the Platform Against the Deep Geological Repository and mayor of Rudíkov in the Třebíč region.

“We filed the lawsuit last Wednesday. We don’t have much hope, because administrative lawsuits have already gone as far as the Constitutional Court once before, and unfortunately the ruling went against us: ‘Nothing is happening to you at present; the site is only being explored, and you are assuming that the repository will be built there.’ But we believe it is important to keep trying,” Souček said.

According to him, no geological work connected with the site survey is being carried out near the municipality at present.

In the future, thousands of tonnes of spent fuel from nuclear power plants are to be permanently stored in the repository, half a kilometre underground. SÚRAO is to assess four areas for the repository. In addition to Janoch and Březový potok, these are the Horka and Hrádek sites in Vysočina. Rudíkov is part of Horka. The authority wants to select the most suitable site by 2030. It should be built 20 years later.

The municipalities have long opposed the repository. In the lawsuit they have now filed, they also argue that the ministry failed to adequately weigh public interests in protecting water, nature and the landscape when designating areas for geological surveys. They also claim that property rights are not adequately protected.

The repository, which is expected to cost more than CZK 100 billion, was originally due to be completed by 2065. Calls to speed up construction have been prompted by the EU’s temporary classification of nuclear power as a green investment. One condition is that countries relying on nuclear energy must have deep geological repositories by 2050.