The government of the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday adopted a decision proclaiming territory along the Una river as a nature park and the entity's minister of Physical Planning and Environment, Srebrenka Golic, explained that this was a measure to prevent Croatia from building a nuclear waste depot on Trgovska Gora in Dvor municipality, which is in the near vicinity of the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The entity's Una Nature Park runs adjacent to the Una National Park in the Federation entity and now the river's basin on Bosnia and Herzegovina's side is a single protected area.

“We want to send a clear message to Croatian authorities that they cannot do that (construct a nuclear waste storage plant) to a neighbouring country because in that area is both a nature and a national park. We are doing that so (Croatia) starts looking for another site that is not populated and does not jeopardise a living environment, and not on the border of a neighbouring country,” Golic told reporters in Banja Luka.

MP Sasa Magazinovic (Green Party) told the Fena news agency that this is necessary to put extra pressure ahead of a meeting between Croatian and Slovenian officials at the end of September to discuss the disposal of nuclear waste from the Krsko nuclear power plant.

What I am afraid of, and this is mentioned in passing in some official Croatian documents, is that Trgovska Gora will not only be used to dispose of waste from Krsko but that it could turn into a depot for European nuclear waste. Some Croatian documents even note that that would be a cost-efficient project, Magazinovic said.