Bosnia and Herzegovina asked neighbouring Croatia on Friday not to use an area near the border shared by the two countries as a waste disposal site for tonnes of radioactive waste produced at the Krsko power plant co-owned by Croatia.

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.

The site is located just north from the border, across the river from the Bosnian town of Novi Grad.

In November, residents of Novi Grad told N1 that the decision was nothing short of scandalous, concerned about the effect the disposal plant might have to the local Una river, a major draw for tourists who visit the area to enjoy the pristine nature, white water rafting and kayaking.  

The Ecology Minister of Republika Srpska, one of the country’s two semi-autonomous regions, Srebrenka Golic, said earlier this month that the formal requests in which she asked for more information on Croatia’s plans were ignored by Zagreb. She called upon Croatia to respect what she called “international norms,” and also accused Bosnia’s central government in Sarajevo of ignoring the issue.

In a statement released by Bosnia’s tripartite Presidency on Friday, they announced they would send a letter to Croatia’s Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, demanding that Croatia looks for another location suitable for waste disposal, which “is not close to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

On Monday, Bosnia’s MPs who are members of an environmentalist “green” group will organise a conference in Sarajevo dedicated to the issue.

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