Residents of the northwestern Bosnian border town of Novi Grad, as well as the Croatian town of Dvor located across the river Una, told N1 on Thursday that they are shocked with the Croatian government's decision to store nuclear waste in the nearby Trgovska Gora area.

According to a plan on radioactive waste disposal which Croatia’s government recently adopted, the waste from the nuclear power plant Krsko will be deposited at the site starting in 2023, despite protests and petitions by locals.

Krsko, located in Slovenia close to the border with Croatia, was built in the early 1980s by Croatia and Slovenia when both countries were part of Yugoslavia. An important source of power for both countries’ national grids, the plant is today co-owned by Slovenian and Croatian state-owned companies. 

However, the only waste disposal site for the plant is in Slovenia, leaving the issue of what to do with Croatia’s share of nuclear waste unresolved for years. Earlier this month, Zagreb adopted a plan saying that the country would in 2023 begin taking in its half of radioactive waste produced by Krsko, and store it at a suitable location temporarily until 2043, when Krsko is scheduled for decommission.

According to the plan, the most suitable location found is at Cerkezovac, a military storage facility near the border town of Dvor, where a large waste disposal site would be built.

However, locals living on both sides of the border fear that the idea to bring in tonnes of nuclear waste to the area might affect their health or the environment, or even pollute the local Una river, which forms the boundary between Bosnia and Croatia.

One of the residents of Novi Grad on the Bosnian side of the river spoke to N1 and said that the plan was “scandalous,” and added that it is “unbelievable that someone could do something like that next to one of the most beautiful rivers” in the region.

The river Una is the main tourist draw in the area, attracting thousands of visitors every year for white water rafting.

On the Croatian side of the border, a resident of Dvor also talked to N1 about Zagreb’s plan.

“Nobody asked the people,” he said, calling the decision “unforgivable.”

“I have land there, my entire life is there, and the fact alone that this nuclear waste will be stored here will be enough to stigmatise all of us, the local agriculture, the people,” he added.

Bosnia’s Novi Grad municipality said they have lost the battle with Croatian institutions on the matter.

“Such a location is normally not considered and selected if there is a source of water nearby, and we have one on our side,” Novi Grad municipal mayor, Miroslav Drljaca, said.

Environmentalist groups have already announced they would submit lawsuits to international courts over the matter.

“Croatia’s plan is to store the waste in a military storage originally designed for weapons and ammunition, not for nuclear waste,” said Mladen Trninic from the Green Team NGO.

“The biggest problem is that Croatia no plans to do any additional construction works to adapt the facility,” he said.

Another problem is that Croatia has not taken into consideration precautions against natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, that could cause the waste to spill into the river Una and threaten not only the environment in the area, but also 28,000 people living in Novi Grad.

The Una river area is a nature park, a protected area. Bosnian fisherman, Edib Dzaferbegovic, said he was worried about what would happen with local wildlife.

“This is an interesting area, with all sorts of fish living in it,” he said.

“It would be a tragedy if something went wrong – all the fish would die, and nature would be destroyed,” Dzaferbegovic added.

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