Government looking to build nuclear power plant

Parliament will likely adopt by the end of the year draft legislation for the construction of a nuclear power plant, economy minister Ante Šušnjar said.

The ministry of economy has set up a working group drafting the nuclear energy law, Šušnjar said late on Thursday evening.

For more than 40 years, Croatia has been the co-owner of the Krško nuclear power plant in neighbouring Slovenia, which supplies about 16% of the country’s energy needs.

Šušnjar pointed out that Croatia needs nuclear energy, along with renewable energy sources, as it stabilises the grid.

The Krško plant, built in 1983, is expected to shut down in 2043. It is a pressurised water reactor with a gross output of 730 MW, generating about 5,700 GWh of electricity annually. The operator, Nuklearna Elektrarna Krško (NEK), is jointly owned by Slovenia’s Gen Energija and Croatia’s power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP).

The European Union has earmarked 240 billion euro for investments in nuclear energy in its multi-annual financial framework, Šušnjar said, adding that the experts would decide on the possible location of a new nuclear power plant.

If there is political consensus, building a nuclear plant in Croatia would take at least five to ten years, the minister said, adding that talks with technology suppliers are under way but decisions on capacity, plant type and timeline are still pending.

Earlier this year, Slovenia's ministry of natural resources and spatial planning released an initiative to prepare a plan for the potential construction of a second reactor at the Krško plant, which is estimated to cost up to 15.4 billion euro.

Croatia has received no official offer to join Slovenia’s new plant but is interested under the same equal-stake model as Krško, Šušnjar said.

Krško will be switched off for a 100 million euro regular overhaul at the end of this month. It is expected to restart production at the end of the next month.