Temelín - Can the nuclear power plant Temelín be threatened by an earthquake, Austrian experts ask.
Even though the seismic "standstill" has played a crucial role for the Czechs when selecting Southern Bohemia as a place for a nuclear power, Austrian experts brought this issue up at a meeting of Czech and Austrian parliament groups.
The parliament committee then decided that a new special research will be conducted in the surroundings of Temelín.
Paleoseismologists will study the seismologic history of the area.
"It is basically a seismological archeology when experts review if there has been any major earthquake around Temelín in the last ten thousand years," explains Jan Švancar, director of the Institute of Physics of the Earth of Masaryk University in Brno who took part at the parliament group meeting as well.
Million crown research
Švancara said that the results of the research will either refute doubts and worries on the Austrian side or they will be a basis for a new research on seismologic threat of the possible future earthquakes in Southern Bohemia.
"We do not assume that there has been any major earthquake in the Bohemian massif that would leave some tracks behind," says Švancara. He pointed out that Austrians will also launch a paleoseismologic research of the Viennese basin.
Both researches will use the same methods so that they cannot be criticized by the other party.
The research will take between two and three years and the public application call will be launched by the State Office for Nuclear Safety. The research will cost several millions of crowns.
Earthquakes coming from Austria
Jan Zedník from the Geophysical Institute of the Sciences Academy of the Czech Republic said that Southern Bohemia is quite passive.
"Sometimes we see weak tectonic phenomena but even the people living here can hardly feel them," he said to Aktuálně.cz. Zedník has a detailed overview of the ground moves thanks to the regional measurement device network.
Zedník also said there is an quake in Southern Bohemia from time to time but only in the mountainous part. "The waves are however very suppressed. It is more of a swinging that has no impact," believes Zedník. He also states Southern Bohemia is a good location for a nuclear power plant in terms of the seismic moves.
Approved by International Atomic Energy Agency
Marek Sviták, spokesman for the nuclear power, said that Temelín is based on safety measurements of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"The seismic activity around Temelín has been under strict monitoring by a local seismology net since 1991. Several mild micro earthquake have been registered, none of them had any impact on the operations or the safety," explained Sviták to Aktuálně.cz.
