Dear Mr. Barroso,
Dear Mr. Piebalgs,
I am writing to you out of concern about the European Commission's
impending decision on the Belene nuclear power project.
The plan to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) near the town of
Belene in northern Bulgaria goes back to the early 1980s. Even
then, Soviet scientists warned that this site is seismically
active and thus unsuited for a nuclear power station. During the
last large earthquake in the region, over 120 people died just
14 kilometres from the planned NPP site. In the early 1990s,
Belene was scrapped and the first democratically elected
Government in Bulgaria determined the project to be "technically
unsafe and economically unviable". This was shortly after the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences issued a 421-page study, which
came to a negative assessment of the project and specifically
warned against the seismic risks of this location.
Many private banks have also come to a negative assessment
of the Belene project. Last year banks from Italy, the U.S.,
Switzerland, and Germany all turned down financial applications
for the Belene project. Several of the banks cited public
concern about the earthquake risks as a decisive factor in
their decision.
I am therefore all the more surprised to hear that the European
Commission is poised to deliver a positive opinion on the proposed
Belene NPP. A positive assessment from the Commission would enable
Bulgaria to apply for loans for Belene from public institutions,
such as Euratom and the European Investment Bank.
If the Commission wants to secure the health and safety of European
citizens, it should not issue a positive opinion on a project,
which soviet scientists, former Bulgarian governments and numerous
commercial banks all assessed as negative. European taxpayers'
money must not be used for a project that will put millions of
people at risk.
My personal plea to you and the other Commissioners is: Use common
sense. Don't play Russian roulette. Don't approve the construction
of nuclear reactors in an earthquake zone!
I would be pleased to receive a direct reply to this email.
Respectfully,