“CROATIA REFUSES COOPERATION”: They are building a radioactive waste storage facility where mostly Serbian returnees live!

The Croatian Parliament has adopted the law on the construction of a center for the storage of radioactive waste from the Krško nuclear power plant at the Čerkezovac location in the municipality of Dvor, only 800 meters from the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project is causing sharp reactions in the neighboring state, where it is seen as a threat to health, the environment, and good neighborly relations. For Euronews Serbia, environmental activist Mario Crnković from the Green Team Association from Novi Grad in Republika Srpska spoke about the controversial aspects.

Crnković points out that the location was chosen by a political decision, rather than professional criteria.

“It is controversial because politics makes decisions that should be made by the profession. As far back as 1997, Croatia had four locations for radioactive waste; they rejected three of them by political decision, by raising hands in the Parliament, and here 26 years later, they are laying the foundation for a political decision to push their radioactive, but also other hazardous wastes, to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina,” states Crnković.

According to him, the location is inadequate and represents a direct threat.

“It is an inadequate location; this has been argued multiple times by people from the expert team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, people from the academic community. Countless times we have requested access to information; we did not even receive the simplest characterization of the radioactive waste, so that we know at least in detail what is planned to be delivered to the border with Republika Srpska, that is, Bosnia and Herzegovina,” says Crnković.

Crnković states that Croatia refuses cooperation, and that the location is only 800 meters away from the border, and that it is closer to the center of Novi Grad than to Dvor.

“We did not receive answers; what we received as an explanation is that in Croatia its lawyers advised them not to share such information with Bosnia and Herzegovina, to wait for the environmental impact study, which is absolutely absurd, because we are talking about a facility positioned just 800 meters from the state border. Storage capacities within that facility are located at some 2,200 meters. That location itself is closer to the center of Novi Grad, which is located in Bosnia and Herzegovina, than it is closer to the center of Dvor, which is located in Croatia,” explains Crnković.

He warns of broader implications.

“It is evidently a project that has potential and already has significant negative cross-border impacts, but Croatia is not interested in that, or rather, politics is not interested. The profession here has been pushed aside, and we are talking exclusively about a political decision,” adds Crnković.

“The rejection of other locations was influenced by Croatian politicians and generals”

Crnković explains why exactly this location was chosen.

“When we talk about the four locations that were there in 1997, Psunj and Papuk were first rejected by the power of amendments; there were influential Croatian generals there then, together with Jadranka Kosor, then a high-ranking member of the Croatian government. They simply did not want radioactive waste to come to their region. After that, Moslovačka gora and Trgovska gora remained. Moslovačka was likewise kicked out by another Croatian general, who with his influence promised the people of Sisak and the surrounding area that Moslovačka gora would not be a place for the disposal of radioactive waste. And he fulfilled that promise to them, so that the only location remaining was this one, in the municipality of Dvor, where mostly a returnee Serbian population lives, where the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina is,” says Crnković.

He emphasizes demographic and geographical aspects.

“But what is very important to emphasize, if you draw a circle around Trgovska gora, and those are those locations, then from three sides Trgovska gora is surrounded by Bosnia and Herzegovina. But what is very important to emphasize, if you draw a circle around Trgovska gora, and those are those locations, then from three sides Trgovska gora is surrounded by Bosnia and Herzegovina. I do not want to enter into the national structure of that area, but demographers and all those who have gone into the topic in detail see some patterns there that are extremely inappropriate for the time in which we live,” points out Crnković.

Crnković does not want to impose a solution, but insists on responsibility.

“None of us wants to impose a solution on Croatia; she has the right and the obligation to make decisions about what to do on her territory, but we certainly also have the right and the obligation to say no to those projects that directly endanger both human health and the perspective of survival for the northwestern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he says.

Crnković also highlights socio-economic consequences.

“But, on the other hand, we should talk about the social, and the economic, and the demographic impacts, because we already have negative economic impacts amidst the negative branding of Novi Grad, which has exceptional developmental potential,” explains Crnković.

“Trgovska gora united the whole of BiH”

Crnković sees in the project a political decision that ignores EU standards.

“We are talking about a case that will definitely last for decades, but it is very important that this first phase ends in the interest of the profession, in the interest of science, in the interest of the citizens, and that in no way should the storage be allowed, of both radioactive wastes from the Krško nuclear power plant and other radioactive wastes from the territory of Croatia,” says Crnković.

He reminds that the project has united BiH.

“The Trgovska Gora case is a topic, the only topic perhaps, current and as far as my memory serves, that has united the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are no differences on a national basis, there are no differences on an entity basis,” he says.

Crnković believes in the arguments of BiH in international disputes.

“In the middle of this year, Bosnia and Herzegovina opened a case before the Secretariat of the ESPOO Convention. Accordingly, both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia submitted additional documentation and their arguments. Yesterday was the last day for submitting additional arguments, so that the delegations of both countries sometime in May of next year would have the opportunity to meet together, to put the arguments on the table and to simply discuss the level of violation of the ESPOO Convention in this case,” says Crnković and adds:

“Why can I speak so freely and openly without hesitation? Because Croatia has not realized a single research on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has not expressed interest in such a thing, is not interested in the data and findings we have on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is not interested in any way for us to methodologically harmonize things; we simply have no serious communication between the two countries in any way.”

Crnković concludes by saying that this is a fight for the right to life.

“As a resident of Novi Grad, as someone who is part of ecological sustainability, as someone who is after all a member of the expert team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I believe we have justification to be optimistic in this case. Regardless of how dark and black and gloomy the situation is, after all we are defending the right to life and of course it is our obligation to defend the right to live in this area,” concludes Crnković.