JEK2: will Croatia and Slovenia cooperate on JEK2? 

As Novi list writes, Slovenia has offered Croatia a quarter of the ownership share in the new nuclear power plant Krško (JEK2). The Office of the Prime Minister of Slovenia and Gen Energija responded that Slovenia “did not make any official offer”

According to the media in Croatia, Slovenia allegedly sent Croatia an official proposal for a partnership in the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Krško (JEK2), and the alleged proposal is significantly less favorable for Croatia than the current way of managing the Krško nuclear power plant, in which both parties have a 50% ownership share.

According to the alleged new proposal, Croatia was offered a quarter share in the future nuclear power plant and without decision-making rights. The second quarter would belong to the state-owned Gen Energy, while the Slovenian state would get a 51% share, writes Novi list.

In essence, this would mean a much smaller impact on business than the southern neighbors have in the current company NEK, which manages the only operational block of the nuclear power plant in Krško. Currently, the ownership of the company is divided: 50 percent is owned by Gen energija, and 50 percent by Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP), the company is managed by general director Goražd Pfajfer, and Croatia has a member of the board and Croatia “owns” half of the electricity produced.

As Novi list reports, according to the new proposal, Croatia would not actually use the electricity produced in Krško, but, in accordance with its co-ownership share, would receive a quarter of the profit from the sale of electricity on the exclusively Slovenian market. According to Croatian media, Croatia should respond to the Slovenian proposal by the end of September or the beginning of October at the latest.

However, in response to questions from the Croatian media, the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Slovenia denied that any official offer had been sent. “Slovenia has not made any official offer to Croatia for co-investment in the JEK2 project” is very precisely claimed by Robert Golob’s cabinet.

Gen Energija also denied any offer, either to the Croatian state power company HEP or the Croatian state or other potential interested parties because “the state company Gen Energija does not have the mandate to launch such initiatives on behalf of the Republic of Slovenia.” But it was added that in accordance with the resolution on the long-term peacetime use of nuclear energy in Slovenia, GEN Energija supports joint investment in the project.

But the Croatian media called the alleged offer “stepfathelly”: the epithet was first used by the president of the Croatian Nuclear Society, Davor Grgić, who told Novi list that Croatia should reject such a proposal. He added that it would be better if the Slovenians offered the previous way of managing the nuclear power plant, in which each side used the generated electricity as they wished. We don’t need profit from the sale of electricity, said Grgić, we need electricity that the government can then use, for example as a subsidized source of energy for the socially disadvantaged and the like.

What interested us the most was the above-mentioned formulation – “Croatia would not use the electricity produced in Krško, but, in accordance with its co-ownership share, would receive a quarter of the profit from the sale of electricity on the exclusively Slovenian market” – which we interpret as primarily reflecting assessments of Slovenia’s future needs for electricity, consequently also the needs of the region, and ultimately the global community. Namely, the Krško nuclear power plant, with its 700 megawatts, provides about a quarter of the electricity for Slovenia and 15% for Croatia. And the future JEK2 project should be a reactor unit with a power of up to 2400 megawatts, in the event that “Croatia does not use electricity” it would deliver all electricity exclusively to the Slovenian market.

Therefore, it should not be surprising that Croatia itself has been announcing and considering the construction of its own nuclear power plant for some time, so in February a working group was convened for the drafting of the law on nuclear energy, where it was announced that Croatia plans to build small modular reactors, which could happen in ten years.

Sources: Novi List/Forbes

S.A.