March 30 (SeeNews) - Slovenia and Croatia plan to start discussing joint investments in the construction of a second unit at Krsko nuclear power plant - a project that aims to meet the future energy needs of both countries, Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa said.
"There are many possibilities for bilateral cooperation when it comes to meeting the energy needs of both Slovenia and Croatia. The competent ministries will soon examine the possibilities for such cooperation when it comes to joint investments in a second unit at Krsko," Jansa said in a press release on Tuesday after a meeting with Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic.
In December, the COO of Slovenian state-run energy group Gen-Energija, Danijel Levicar, said the company will make a final investment decision on the construction of a second unit at Krsko nuclear power plant (NPP) by 2027. A single nuclear reactor is not enough to cover the rising energy demand of Croatia and Slovenia given the power shortage that the entire region of Southeast Europe (SEE) faces, Levicar noted.
Krsko NPP, located in Slovenia near the border with Croatia, generates some 40% of Slovenia's electricity output. The NPP is located around 100 kilometers from Austria and operates a Westinghouse pressurised light water reactor of 2,000 MW thermal power capacity. The operating company Nuklearna Elektrarna Krsko (NEK) is co-owned by Gen-Energija and Croatia's Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP).