Brussels, (8^th February 2001): The so-called Melk Protocol signed by Austria, Czech Republic and mediated by Commissioner G. Verheugen on December 12^th is not being fulfilled. The blockades by environmental activists against the disputed Czech NPP were stopped after a safety audit and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) were promised.

"So far the Czech government has not even agreed on a proposal for how the Environmental Impact Assessment should be conducted – two months after the agreement was signed. Commissioner Verheugen should act now and urge the Czech government to start a serious process. It is getting more obvious every day that the Czech government is trying to prevent a serious EIA on Temelin."
- Patricia Lorenz of FoEE.

Meanwhile the Czech utility CEZ is still trying to put the first unit of Temelin NPP on the grid. Technical problems in the last weeks reached unforeseen dimensions when the start-up had to be interrupted after turbine problems and the reactor´s chain reaction was stopped on January 17th. While personnel tried to find a way how to fix the vibrating turbine, a "microscopic" crack was found in the steam inlet pipe. Later the microscopic crack turned out to be 45 cm long and the whole pipe being too thin for its function. The pipe was apparently delivered in this state ten years ago and no one noticed.

"We have to raise the question of whether the quality management at Temelin is reliable. The nuclear authority SUJB is clearly not as strict as it should be, when components are broken even before the plant ever operated and serious safety problems are being discovered accidentally," - Patricia Lorenz of FoEE.

FOE Austria, FoE Czech Republic and Foe Europe call upon Commissioner Günther Verheugen to finally assume his responsibility as a mediator. Verheugen must urge the Czechs to start the EIA, two months after the Melk Protocol was agreed and nothing promised has materialized. If Verheugen fails to intervene in the next few days, the Melk Protocol is endangered.