New Nuclear Waste Store Worries Serbia's Greens

Yellow barrels labeled "radioactive" are standing empty in the new hangar in Vinca near Belgrade, waiting to be stored with nuclear waste.

This is expected to happen within the next three weeks after the state-owned company, Nuclear Facilities of Serbia, obtains a licence to open the site for the storage of radioactive waste.

"The new storage facility will be home to all the nuclear waste in the country, which will be kept in 8,500 barrels," Balkan Insight has learned from the company.

Every year Serbia generates tens to hundreds cubic metres of radioactive waste from medical institutions, scientific-research organisations and industry.

Across from the new hangar at Vinca is a 50-year-old hangar that stores about 3,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste. Its doors have been kept locked for years due to concerns about radioation. Next to it is another hangar, which is still in use.

To keep this deadly material in safe, the authorities have invested 2.5 million euros in the new hangar, which is now finished after four years of work.  

While the company boasts of building most modern storage place for nuclear waste in Europe, environmentalists remain concerned.

Radojica Pesic, head of the company, has tried to allay those concerns, noting that Serbia will not be importing any radioactive waste from other countries.

According to the country's Law on Protection against Ionizing Radiation and Nuclear Safety, the import of radioactive waste and used nuclear fuel of foreign origin is forbidden.

But, ahead of the official opening, Serbia's Greens are urging the authorities to disclose exactly how the new hangar will affect the local environment. The Greens want to see an existing study conducted on the environmental impact made public, among other things.