ZAGREB, 25 January, 2021 - The devastating earthquake that hit Sisak-Moslavina County and the town of Petrinja on 29 December serves as a warning of how much that area is prone to earthquakes and plans for the construction of a radioactive waste disposal site in that part of Croatia should be reconsidered.

This was stated during a debate in the Bosnia and Herzegovina parliament on Monday, with Snježana Cvijić Amulić, who is the Republika Srpska Seismological Institute's official in charge of observational seismology, said that the energy released by the earthquake that struck Petrinja was such that the existing projections of seismic activity would have to be revised both on the Croatian and the Bosnian side of the border.

"We can no longer talk about the maximum eight but the maximum nine degrees on the Mercalli scale (in) the most critical seismic location," Cvijić Amulić said during the debate, organised by the Greens parliamentary group.

The debate was yet another event held as part of a campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina geared towards preventing the construction of the radioactive waste disposal site at Trgovska Gora in Dvor municipality, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The underground storage facilities that are part of the former Čerkezovac barracks should be repurposed for the storage of low and medium radioactive waste.

As of 2020 the management of the former barracks has been within the remit of the Croatian Fund for financing the decommissioning of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant (NEK) and the disposal of NEK radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

That fund has been tasked with determining if the location is suitable for that purpose by making an environmental impact study, to include geological, geohydrological, geomorphological, ecological, seismological and other exploratory activities.

Only if the research shows that the project will not have a negative impact on the environment will the procedure be launched to obtain a building permit.

The Croatian towns of Dvor and Petrinja, too, have opposed the project.

BiH Foreign Trade and Economy Minister Staša Košarac said today that in the worst-case scenario his country could seek international arbitration.

ZAGREB, September 12, 2019 - The government of the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday adopted a decision proclaiming territory along the Una river as a nature park and the entity's minister of Physical Planning and Environment, Srebrenka Golić, explained that this was a measure to prevent Croatia from building a nuclear waste depot on Trgovska Gora in Dvor municipality, which is in the near vicinity of the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The entity's Una Nature Park runs adjacent to the Una National Park in the Federation entity and now the river's basin on Bosnia and Herzegovina's side is a single protected area.

"We want to send a clear message to Croatian authorities that they cannot do that (construct a nuclear waste storage plant) to a neighbouring country because in that area is both a nature and a national park. We are doing that so (Croatia) starts looking for another site that is not populated and does not jeopardise a living environment, and not on the border of a neighbouring country," Golić told reporters in Banja Luka.

Member of Parliament Saša Magazinović (Green Party) told the Fena news agency that this is necessary to put extra pressure ahead of a meeting between Croatian and Slovenian officials at the end of September to discuss the disposal of nuclear waste from the Krško nuclear power plant.

What I am afraid of, and this is mentioned in passing in some official Croatian documents, is that Trgovska Gora will not only be used to dispose of waste from Krsko but that it could turn into a depot for European nuclear waste. Some Croatian documents even note that that would be a cost-efficient project, Magazinović said.

More news about relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, April 11, 2019 - A protest was held in Dvor near the Bosnian border on Wednesday against plans to build a site for the disposal of nuclear waste from the Krško nuclear power plant at the Trgovska Gora location.

The rally drew hundreds of locals, members of ecology associations and representatives of neighbouring municipalities and towns from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dvor mayor Nikola Arbutina welcomed the citizens' initiative against disposing nuclear waste at Čerkezovac, a former military barracks at Trgovska Gora, saying the municipality had done everything to stop nuclear waste from being disposed there.

He said the protesters should protest in Zagreb because decisions were made there and not in Dvor, whose authorities, he said, had no say in the matter.

"Only the state can decide where the nuclear waste will end up. Only by uniting the right and left banks of the Una river can we do something. If we carry on as we have until now, scoring political points on this problem, then we'll achieve nothing," Arbutina said, adding that today's protest was in the service of elections for ethnic minority councils and European Parliament elections.

Mario Crnković, president of the Green Team association, said the nuclear waste disposal site was a common problem and interest of the Croatian and Bosnian communities along the Una river and that only by uniting could the people oppose the project. "We mustn't trade with Trgovska Gora."

The Una river, which the two border regions share, does not deserve to be polluted with hazardous waste, said Miroslav Drljača, head of the Bosnian municipality of Novi Grad.

Bosnian MP Jasmin Emerić said the nuclear waste would destroy the most beautiful European region.

Dušan Bjelajac, deputy head of the Croatian county of Sisak-Moslavina, also warned about the danger of the disposal site.

Petrinja mayor and Croatian MP Darinko Dumbović said he had spoken about this problem in the Croatian parliament a number of times, "yet many MPs wouldn't listen... because they raised their hands for the Trgovska Gora location." He added that he was referring to the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, the opposition Social Democrats, the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) "and other ethnic minorities."

Dumbović called out SDSS president Milorad Pupovac, saying he had betrayed his people in the Banovina region because of the ruling coalition, of which the SDSS is part. He added that Arbutina was deluding his people.

After one hour, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

More news about the nuclear energy can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, January 30, 2019 - Sisak-Moslavina County Prefect Ivo Zinić on Tuesday commented on the possibility of the Trgovska Gora mountain range becoming the location for medium radioactive nuclear waste site, saying that Petrinja is some 60 to 70 kilometres away and would not be under any threat, adding that some people were trying to portray the county as a place where there is no life and where hopelessness prevails.

Asked by reporters to comment on Petrinja Mayor Darinko Dumbović's appeal to join him in the fight against Trgovska Gora's becoming a radioactive waste dump, Zinić said that that was politicking and that some people wanted to portray the county in a bad light, as a place with nuclear waste where there are no jobs and no prospects for life and where hopelessness prevailed.

He explained that Trgovska Gora is the possible site for low and medium radioactive waste, while nuclear waste from the Krško Nuclear Power Plant would be stored near Krško in Slovenia.

The waste storage site in Čerkezovac is related to medical waste, radioactive needles, material, lightning rods, protective clothing and the like. We have to control the storage of our radioactive waste and we presume that uncontrolled sites (with that type of material) exist around the country and perhaps even in military warehouses and bunkers in Čerkezovac. Even though our county physical plan doesn't foresee that site for waste storage, we have to respect physical plans of a higher order, Zinić said.

Zinić reiterated that the issue concerning a site for radioactive waste on Trgovska Gora, similarly to the dispute over the Sisak oil refinery, is being exploited to attract attention and that this was about 'political promotion and politicking by certain groups or individuals.'

More news on the nuclear waste issue in Croatia can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 19, 2018 - Representatives of the Croatian Institute for Radiology and Nuclear Safety (DZNS) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) in Vienna on Wednesday signed an agreement regulating cooperation in nuclear safety and the exchange of technical information.

According to HSS, a member of the ruling coalition, the answer is “no”.