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19.09.2014 11:25- Temelin NPP
© CEZ
The situation in Ukraine is an argument for extending nuclear power plants Temelin and Dukovany, Industry and Trade Minister Jan Mladek (Social Democrats, ČSSD) said at a conference on gas supplies to Europe today.
"If you have fuel and energy engineers, you are self-sufficient in energy," Mladek said, as reported by the Prague Post, citing information by the Czech News Agency.
The crisis in Ukraine is something that divides the society into two camps, which more or less agree that the annexation of Crimea by Russia was not legitimate, Mládek said. One group sees Russia as an enemy and supports sanctions, while the other group sees the situation as a certain "geopolitical tug of war."
Mládek also warned that, because countries such as Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova are supplied gas only from Ukraine, and they do not have sufficient storage facilities, this could lead to a crisis if gas flows were interrupted, according to Mládek.
"The risk of a humanitarian disaster of people freezing to death is quite real," Mladek said.
Vaclav Bartuska, the Czech Republic's ambassador-at-large for energy security, said most European countries, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, did a lot to reduce their gas dependency in the past, according to Bartuska.
"But then there are states, such as Bulgaria, which did not do very much," Bartuska added.
Nuclear power plant Temelin has bought fuel from Russian company TVEL, part of the Rosatom concern, since July 2011. Before that, fuel was supplied to Temelin by the U.S. firm Westinghouse.
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