Bratislava - Slovakia has not yet restarted its Soviet-era reactor in Jaslovske Bohunice, shut down in line with the country's European Union accession deal, but was ready to do so in a crisis, the Slovak premier said on Tuesday. "We consider restarting (the reactor) as extraordinarily timely and acute. When a critical moment occurs we will make the step," Prime Minister Robert Fico told reporters at a news conference.
The country currently has enough electricity for the moment as energy firms turned on backup sources and bought power abroad, officials said.
Fico said that Slovakia is communicating with the European Commission on its plans to fire the reactor, which would amount to a breach of its EU accession deal.
"We want to minimize the damage ... on the international level," he said. He added that Slovakia was ready to invite international observers to the power plant, whose last reactor was closed on December 31.
Fico, a proponent of nuclear power, has repeatedly slammed his predecessors for agreeing to shut down the nuclear power plant in exchange for entering the EU.
The Slovak government gave a green light to relaunching the reactor on Saturday amid worries that a shutdown of Russian natural gas supplies via Ukraine could trigger a blackout in the central European country of 5.4 million.
The decision angered neighbouring Austria, which opposes nuclear power. The European Commission said the move would violate EU law but has so far hesitated to threaten Slovakia with sanctions.
Slovakia, which generates part of its power from gas, is fully dependent on Russian supplies pumped through Ukraine.
The gas importer and distributor SPP asked 1,000 manufacturers to limit gas consumption to a minimum but also said on Tuesday that the situation is currently stabilized.
When asked whether his government was not overreacting, premier Fico gave an irritated reply.
"It is like talking to the deaf. You do not grasp at all what is going on," he said.
