Greenpeace asks Romania not to build nuke plants

Bucharest, Oct 25: Environment group Greenpeace urged Romanian authorities today not to build two new nuclear reactors for the Cernavoda plant because of greater risks in case of a terror attack.

Bucking a trend in Europe, Romania plans to inaugurate its second reactor early in 2007 and has set a deadline for binding bids to build and operate a third and a fourth reactor for end-2006.

''A major nuclear accident due to technical causes or following a terror attack will be devastating ... such as an accident at the Belene and Kozloduy plants in Bulgaria,'' Anamaria Bogdan, a spokeswsoman for Greenpeace in Romania, said in a statement.

''Nuclear energy is one of the worst options to solve Romania's energy (needs),'' Jan Haverkamp, an expert with Greenpeace was also quoted as saying.

Works at Cernavoda plant, designed to have five reactors, began 30 years ago under the former communist regime. Construction stopped in 1990 when a survey revealed some of the equipment was in poor condition and the welding was faulty.

The plant's first reactor went on stream in 1996 and accounts for more than 10 percent of the country's power generation.

Reuters