Czech nuclear reactors have so far produced at least 4000 tons of highly radioactive waste. If the number of reactors grows, so will the amount of waste produced. The government has long declared itself in favor of developing nuclear energy even as it still does not know how to solve the nuclear waste problem. Martin Sedlák takes a look. Locals and municipalities vs. the state: 20 years of disputes The Czech concept for nuclear waste abatement counts on building storage facilities for it underground. Until that capacity is built, “barrels” of spent nuclear waste remain at intermediate storage facilities on the sites of these power plants. The state has given the responsibility for finding an appropriate location for such storage underground to the Radioactive Waste Repositories Administration (RWRA). At the very beginning of identifying such a storage site, six localities covering the territories of 32 different municipalities were preselected. Today the state is choosing from nine localities covering the territories of 52 municipalities. Instead of local administrations and the state reaching a consensus on this … Continue reading The nuclear legacy nobody wants