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Slovenia expects to build its second nuclear power plant by 2020 and prolong the life of the current facility by another 20 years, the state-owned energy firm Gen Energija said.

Joze Spiler, head of investment at Gen Energija, which operates Slovenia's sole nuclear power plant, Krsko (NEK), said he expected the government and parliament to approve construction of the second facility next year.

 

"If the building of the plant is approved next year, it could start operating in 2020," Spiler told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding the new plant would operate for 60 years.

 

Slovenia expects to choose between Toshiba unit Westinghouse, France's Areva, Japan's Mitsubishi, and Atmea, a joint venture of Areva and Mitsubishi, to supply technology for the new plant, expected to cost 3-4 billion euros.

 

It would be located next to NEK, which lies in southeastern Slovenia near the border with Croatia and is jointly owned by the two states.

 

NEK, which started operating while Slovenia and Croatia were part of Yugoslavia in 1983, was built in cooperation with Westinghouse Electric Corporation and is scheduled to close in 2023.

 

Neighbouring Austria and Slovenian environmentalists have been pushing for an early closure of NEK, which lies 70 km from Slovenia's border with Austria, but the Ljubljana government has said the plant is safe.

 

In June 2008, NEK was shut down for six days due to a water leak. The malfunction had no influence on the environment.

 

 

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