RS Minister: We must stop Croatia's plan to dump nuclear waste near our border

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Bosnia will use all legal and other means available to stop Croatia from dumping its nuclear waste near the Bosnian border, the Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and Ecology in Bosnia’s Serb-majority region said on Wednesday.

Republika Srpska (RS) Minister Srebrenka Golic made the statement after the news emerged that Croatia’s Ministry for Environment and Energy has given the barracks in Cerkezovac, near Bosnia’s northern border, to the Croatian Fund for Financing Decommissioning and Disposal of Radioactive Waste of the Krsko nuclear power plant.

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Bosnian officials, including members of the tripartite Presidency, have been asking Croatia to refrain from using that location as its dumpsite for nuclear waste since the plan came to light in 2018, arguing that it could endanger the lives of 250,000 people living in the area along the Una river.

Golic said she contacted Bosnia’s Foreign Trade Minister, Stasa Kosarac, about the announced activities and that he said he will raise the issue in the Council of Ministers and inform the Presidency about it.

“We will use all legal and other possibilities to stop Croatia from doing this. We expected that they would be good neighbours and that we would cooperate now when we have a pandemic and when a lot of people are crossing our borders, but they are doing this,” Golic said.

 “If they don’t give up on their plan, we will also dump out waste at the border with Croatia,” she said.