The director of JKP Belgrade Power Plant Rade Basta sent an open letter to the Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabić and the Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlović to consider lifting the moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants in the Republic of Serbia.
– Energy production in nuclear power plants is cheaper and cleaner compared to conventional methods of energy production. At thermal power plants, we have a huge emission of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the environment. The technologies that have to be installed according to the latest standards for waste gas purification are practically as expensive as the technologies themselves for energy production itself. We do not have such challenges with nuclear power plants. When everything is added up, nuclear production is cheaper, and the same is with exploitation – stated Basta, according to the company’s website.
He added that the return on investment is somewhat longer, but that should not be decisive:
– Cheaper production, technological development, energy stability and safety and environmental protection are decisive. The first reason why nuclear energy is a deficit in the energy balance. Another reason, which is even more important, but I would like to emphasize it: if Serbia wants to monitor technological development and have its staff involved in that development, then it would be good to get involved in a nuclear project.
For that reason, he called on the Government of the Republic of Serbia to lift the moratorium on the construction of nuclear power plants in the Republic of Serbia as soon as possible and to call on the United States and the European Union to open a nuclear technology research center in cooperation with the Vinca Institute that works with nuclear technologies, professional and expert people, but also those who need help in the transfer of knowledge and technology from the best experts in nuclear technology and to work together with them on projects that are of interest to both countries.
– It is necessary to renew and build the scientific base in this area, which stopped all state processes related to the use of nuclear energy and the development of nuclear technologies with the moratorium from 1989. It is necessary to invest in the education of new staff at Serbian faculties, in order to renew the base and catch up with the modern world, especially to study more nuclear sciences at universities and open directions of nuclear engineering according to Serbian professors in the field of nuclear physics. I believe that the United States, as the world’s leading top nuclear technology power, is a true partner that can help us establish such a scientific research center, because safe reactors and cheaper electricity production are the main topic everywhere in the world. Nuclear energy for peacetime purposes is mostly used to produce electricity. Also, the nuclear industry of the United States of America has incredible results of safe and reliable work – states Basta.
He also pointed out that the energy of the future is nuclear energy, because it is clean and reliable, and it is the only one that does not create a greenhouse effect in the production of electricity.
– Without nuclear energy, it is impossible to achieve the goals of sustainable development in the future, clean water, clean air, quality health care, and more and more countries are working to develop clean, green energy that enables sustainable growth and economic development. If Serbia decides to build a nuclear power plant, the one who would invest or from whom we would buy the technology would certainly provide education and training of the necessary staff, nuclear fuel and all other necessary resources for the implementation of such a project of national importance – he concluded, eKapija reports.
