Slovak News Back to the news
MPs to Discuss Uranium Mining at December Session
Tuesday 24 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 24 (TASR) - The Slovak Parliament will deal with a petition against uranium mining at its December session, the parliamentary committee for agriculture and the environment decided on Tuesday.
The petition, signed by more than 113,000 Slovak citizens and 41 local authorities from areas between Nove Mesto nad Vahom (Trencin Region) and Zemplin (Kosice Region), was submitted in September by environmentalist organisation Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and civil associations Sozna and Brectan.
According to director of Greenpeace in Slovakia Juraj Rizman, Greenpeace welcomes the decision of the committee as well as the fact that the petition was supported by all the MPs in it - across the political spectrum. Rizman thinks that the important thing now is how the debate in Parliament will turn out.
The civil initiative against uranium mining is trying to persuade MPs to take all environmental, health-related as well as economic risks into consideration. It has also prepared proposals for legislative amendments that would widen the access of local governments to information concerning geological research, which would enable local authorities to deal with land planning - excluding the possibility of uranium mining - more effectively.
According to the environmentalists, uranium mining brings risks mainly connected to the handling of enormous amounts of radioactive materials. After uranium is separated from its ore, as much as 99 percent remains as waste. Bearing in mind the presence of other radioactive elements, this waste contains as much as 85 percent of the initial amount of radioactivity. Uranium waste rock also contains several toxic substances such as arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.
Several mining companies have been looking for uranium ore throughout Slovakia in recent years. The territory explored has reached 400 square kilometres, with most of the licences controlled by companies from Canada and Australia.
Jan Foltyn from the Slovak Mining Chamber has countered the environmentalists by pointing out the state's role as the owner of areas where mining could potentially take place after geological exploration. "Every normal landowner wants to know what's on his territory. The state should also want to know what its value is and what the possibilities are. Then it can decide whether it's better to protect, to conquer or to use," he said. As far as the environmental burden of mining activities is concerned, Foltyn said that citizens have to endure something if a "common outcome" is the goal.
"I'm also bugged by cars driving around me and planes flying over me," claimed Foltyn, adding that approximately 30 percent of Slovak territory is protected at the moment. "We could have the whole of Slovakia protected, but how are we going to live here?, what are we going to do?, how is the generation after us going to manage?," he pondered, adding that these questions should be considered as well.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
