Director of Vinca Institute: Serbia needs a nuclear power plant like it needs air and water

In the world and in our country as well, there has been plenty of talk this year about the peacetime use of nuclear energy, and Serbia is preparing to repeal the Law on the Ban of Construction of Nuclear Power Plants. The issue of the consequences of the climate change cannot be solved, the issue of air pollution, in both Belgrade and Serbia, cannot be solved if there is no nuclear power plant, points out the director of the Institute for Nuclear Sciences “Vinca”, Slavko Dimovic.

This year has also been marked by talks about how to fully unlock the potentials of nuclear energy and use it for peacetime purposes. The Institute for Nucelar Sciences “Vinca”, with 790 employees, of which 365 have PhDs, will play an important role in the development of the Serbian nuclear program.

– Above all, a nuclear renaissance is forthcoming in the world, as is a return to original science and technology roots. The Institute for Nuclear Sciences “Vinca”, as the biggest national institute in the Balkans, will have the leading role in the development and return to the Serbian nuclear program – notes Dimovic.

Above all, those steps will be synchronized with the policy of the Government of Serbia, which have to do with the signing of memorandums of understanding between the Ministry of Energy and the leading science institutions.

– And then also through amendments to the Law on Energy, where the memorandum on the use of nuclear energy will be removed, which will enable Serbia to implement nuclear energy for peacetime purposes – says Dimovic.

When it comes to the staff, the director of the Institute in Vinca says that the whole world lacks nuclear energy experts, because it is a very demanding job.

– At the moment, 30 to 50 people can be educated in the next two years. That has to be decided in accordance with the Government of Serbia, and the “Vinca” Institute will be the carrier of the education of the staff that would do the implementation of nuclear energy – points out Dimovic.

He says that the staff can be trained in three to five years, and during that time, parallel activities can be done, which concern regulations related to the legislature.

– The academy member Pavle Savic, who is also the founder of this institute, said while talking about nuclear energy in the 1970s that a man uses a match, and he could burn a house with it, there’s no safer facility than a nuclear reactor, that is, a nuclear power plant. Of course, if the reactor is handled property – Dimovic points out.

Serbia needs a nuclear power plant like it needs air and water, says the director of the “Vinca” Institute.

– The issue of the consequences of the climate change cannot be solved, the issue of air pollution, in both Belgrade and Serbia, cannot be solved if there is no nuclear power plant. So, a nuclear power plant is the solution to all environmental problems – believes Dimovic.

There are those who say that we should slow down, that that facility doesn’t have to be built here of all places, that we can join forces with other countries.

– My position is that there are always those who try to stop the changes, that there’s inertia in every human organism, that people fear the unknown, but through this type of missions, through the system of education, I believe that the public opinion, in two to three years, will be absolutely ready for the state of Serbia to start building a nuclear power plant. As for the regional character, it primarily pertains to regional storage of nuclear waste, because that nuclear power plant, whether there’s one or two of them, will not generate the amount of waste that would be sufficient for a landfill in, for example, Serbia – explains Dimovic.

When it comes to raw materials, he says that we will be dependent on raw materials as much as the whole world.

– So, everybody knows where uranium ore is located, it is primarily located in Asia, that is, in Siberia, it is located in African countries, and that is a strategic question, but other states which are much more powerful in terms of their economies and militaries also import the fuel – Dimovic said for RTS.

Institut za nuklearne nauke Vinča Beograd

Institute for Nuclear Sciences Vinča

Slavko Dimović

Pavle Savić

Law on the Ban on Construction of Nuclear Power Plants

construction of nuclear power plants in Serbia