Czech Municipalities Oppose Building Law Amendment Amid Nuclear Waste Repository Dispute

A platform uniting Czech municipalities and organizations opposed to the construction of a deep repository for radioactive waste has voiced strong disagreement with a forthcoming amendment to the building law and plans to ask senators to block it.

According to the platform's spokesperson, Michael Forman, mayor of the town of Horažďovice (whose Březový Potok locality in the Pošumaví region is among the candidate sites), the new rules would sharply curtail landowners' rights even at the stage of searching for a suitable repository site — that is, well before any official construction decision is made. Forman described this as a "salami-slicing method," whereby the rights of affected municipalities and property owners are gradually whittled away piece by piece.

Besides Březový Potok, the sites under consideration for the repository include Horka and Hrádek in the Vysočina region, as well as Janoch near the Temelín nuclear power plant. The Radioactive Waste Repository Authority has already begun deep geological drilling at some of these locations. Municipalities at all the candidate sites have filed lawsuits against the exploration permits, but the courts rejected them. Cassation appeals are still pending, but, like the original lawsuits, they do not suspend the permits.

Currently, companies carrying out the drilling must reach agreements with landowners, and some municipalities have already barred geologists from entering their territory. However, the platform warns that the new version of the law would allow investors to bypass this requirement — entering and conducting surveys on any plot of land without the owner's consent.

"We believe the law won't pass in this form," Forman said. According to the municipalities and civic organizations, the problem lies in the sheer number of changes the amendment introduces.

The deep repository, where thousands of tons of spent fuel from Czech nuclear power plants are to be permanently buried roughly half a kilometer underground, is expected to be built in Czechia by 2050. A specific site is due to be chosen by 2030. Other countries are developing similar repositories in parallel.

The platform is calling for a fundamental review of the state's approach to handling spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste, arguing it should not be limited to building a deep repository alone. Activists are also pushing for the final site selection to require the consent of the affected municipalities.

Source: ekolist.cz