Dispute over Czech nuclear waste repository escalates, municipalities promise further resistance and appeals

Municipalities in areas being considered for a nuclear waste repository have failed in their lawsuits challenging permits for geological exploration. The court today dismissed the fourth and final administrative lawsuit against the Environment Ministry’s decision, concerning Březový potok in the Pošumaví region. In recent months, it reached the same decision on exploration in the Janoch area near Temelín and in Hrádek and Horka in the Třebíč region. The municipalities can still turn to the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS). Municipalities in the Březový potok area will probably file a cassation appeal, as the Horka area is now preparing to do.

"The Prague Municipal Court has recently dealt with similar cases. We agree with the way our colleagues addressed the objections raised in the lawsuit," said judge-rapporteur Hana Kadaňová.

Among other things, she rejected the claim that the ministry had given insufficient consideration to the interests of the municipalities. According to her, those interests are not affected by the exploration itself, or are affected to an acceptable extent.

The judge also pointed to related Supreme Administrative Court case law. She also noted that the Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (SÚRAO) must meet the set conditions during exploration, for example by informing municipalities of any interventions on land and minimising the impact on their territory.

The current lawsuit was filed by the town of Horažďovice and the municipalities of Břežany, Chanovice, Kovčín, Kvášňovice, Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Maňovice, Olšany and Pačejov. Their legal representative, Denisa Skládalová, criticised the ministry in court today for using a “salami-slicing method”, deferring municipalities’ objections to later stages of the repository permitting process. She pointed out that the challenged decision has the potential to affect the development of the municipalities concerned and the lives of their residents. She also cited the public interest in protecting several local streams.

The Radioactive Waste Repository Authority (SÚRAO), by contrast, argues that there is an enormous public interest both in conducting geological exploration and in subsequently building the repository. It stresses that the project stems from strategic documents adopted by the government and that radioactive waste cannot be left for future generations to deal with.

Chanovice Mayor Petr Čotek (Association for the Future), in the Klatovy region, told ČTK that the legal representative of all Březový potok municipalities had told them after the ruling today that, according to the judges, the reasoning would be similar to that for the previous three sites. They should receive the written judgment within a month, after which a two-week deadline for filing a cassation appeal will begin. Its grounds and arguments can be supplemented later. “We are currently preparing a cassation appeal for the Horka site,” Skládalová wrote to the municipalities today after the ruling.

According to Čotek, filing a cassation appeal will be up to all ten municipalities in the area, which have unanimously opposed the repository for 23 years. They will probably file the appeal, he said. “We received some money from the nuclear account which, as we said, we will certainly use to fight this system,” he said. The municipalities had expected today’s ruling. “We will continue with protests and lawsuits; we will not agree to access to land for exploratory drilling. We have supported a complaint to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters), among others. It is a combination of every possible means of seeking justice and being respected,” he said.

Municipalities in the Pošumaví region are calling on lawmakers to approve an amendment to the repository law that would strengthen the rights of local authorities and involve them in deciding on the final site, which the government is due to select by 2030. “We will use all legitimate means available to us under Czech law to draw the attention of the public, which is not being truthfully informed, as is clearly evident, for example, from SÚRAO’s statements. They always say they communicate responsibly and truthfully with the municipalities and that we know everything. But they do not say that we completely disagree with it,” he added.

About a hundred people demonstrated this Saturday in the Klatovy region against the planned deep geological repository in the Březový potok area, blocking the main road from Plzeň to Horažďovice. Mayors of all affected municipalities who were present warned, among other things, of impacts they said would accompany construction – such as thousands of trucks passing through villages. The government is due to select the repository site from four shortlisted areas by 2030. According to the municipalities’ mayors, this cannot be achieved in time. Exploratory drilling has not yet begun, even though it had been planned since last year.