Czech uranium mine poses risk

Temelin was restarted over the weekend after a six-week shutdown to repair a faulty steam pipe. Czech and Austrian environmentalists have been campaigning for a complete closure, saying the Soviet- design facility is unsafe.

The newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes, after interviewing officials familiar with the old uranium mine operation MAPE Mydlovary a few kilometres from the Temelin plant, reported that the nuclear reactor's radioactive releases would be less of a threat.

Tailings from the mine, about 36 million tonnes of mud, give off cancer-causing radon gas and threaten the area's groundwater with its toxic soup of uranium, acids and arsenic, the report said. Some area residents fear the toxins will contaminate their wells.

Government regulators told the newspaper the mine tailings pose no immediate danger, and officials are constantly monitoring the site as well as groundwater. But they also said it will take years to clean up the site and similar waste pits at more than a dozen other uranium mines scattered around the country.

(la/dpa)