Slovenian lawmakers voted Thursday to cancel a referendum on building a new nuclear facility after environmental groups and experts filed petitions with the constitutional court.
The proposed JEK 2 facility was supposed to be built next to Slovenia’s existing Krsko nuclear power plant, which is jointly owned by Slovenia and Croatia and supplies approximately 20% of Slovenia’s and 16% of Croatia’s electrical energy needs.
Sixty-nine members of the 90-seat parliament voted to cancel the public referendum, one voted against, and one abstained.
The referendum was scheduled to take place on November 24.
Earlier this month, Slovenia’s parliament voted to hold a referendum
However, widespread criticism of both the question and the proposal prompted the parliamentary groupings to withdraw their support for the referendum.
Lawmakers said there were valid doubts about whether voters could make an informed, autonomous and responsible decision on such an issue.
However, observers say the referendum’s cancelation next month does not exclude it from taking place later.
The government has stated that it will work on preparing a special law for JEK 2, and that the state-owned GEN Energija will continue to work on the project’s development, which is anticipated to cost between 9.6 billion euros ($10.37 billion) and 15.4 billion.
Slovenia and Croatia agreed in 2023 to extend the lifespan of the Krsko plant by 20 years, until 2043. Krsko’s thermal power capacity is 1,994 Megawatts (MW), with a net power production of 696 MW.
