Greenpeace and locals join on nuclear waste issue in Bulgaria

10 February 2005 (Sofia / Novi Han) – Today, representatives of the village of Novi Han and the international environmental organisation Greenpeace met to discuss the consequences of Bulgaria’s nuclear energy policy for the nuclear waste storage in Novi Han, a village around 20 km from Sofia. They concluded that Bulgaria should revise its focus on nuclear energy and with that relieve pressure on the village of Novi Han to accept a large expansion of its nuclear waste storage.

The village of Novi Han, 20 km South - East of Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, hosts already for 40 years a nuclear waste dump for low and middle radioactive wastes from the Sofia nuclear research reactor, medical and industrial sources. This storage is full and plans are currently developed to expand it - not only for more waste from the medical and industrial area, but also for a final storage of high radioactive wastes from Bulgarian’s nuclear energy programme.

The inhabitants of Novi Han strongly oppose this development, because they feel that basic principles are being violated. Instead of first developing clear criteria for nuclear waste storage and on the basis of these criteria look for possible locations, they feel that they are victim in a government scheme that first took them as location and now is adapting everything to that choice. “We do not want to become the national nuclear dump site. The government needs to take our opinion into account as well. With Greenpeace we demand that Bulgaria first stops the production of waste for which no solution exists,” said Ognyan Chipev, inhabitant of Novi Han.

Jan Haverkamp, nuclear expert for Greenpeace, pointed out that his organisation supports the inhabitants of Novi Han in their demand for a change in policy: “There is no solution for nuclear waste - especially not for highly radioactive waste from nuclear power stations. Before we can discuss the conditions of what to do with existing waste, the creation of more waste needs to stop. That means a fast phase-out of Kozloduy and scrapping the Belene project. We therefore support the inhabitants of Novi Han in their opposition to the nuclear waste dump near their village.” Haverkamp added: “There are clear alternatives for nuclear power in Bulgaria, that also meet the challenge of climate change: energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy like biomass, solar energy and wind. Nuclear power is unnecessary, and the inhabitants of Novi Han are the victim of a failing government energy policy.”