Thursday, May 29, 2008

Nuke love story for small Albania

By Gjergj Erebara in Tirana

Yes, we are interested to build nuclear plants in our soil”. This is what Mr. Sali Berisha, Albanian Premier, declared in today’s edition of Italian daily Corriere Della Sera. Last months, some Italian politicians including new Minister of Finance Mr. Giulio Tremonti, declared that Berluscony’s government wants Nuclear Energy and that Albania can be an available place.

Usually, scientific communities should find solutions for important issues of a country and politics should sustain such solutions. This is not the case of Albania at all. The small scientific community of the country, who deals with nuclear energy, is now “homeless”. Government of Mr. Berisha has closed last month Institute for Nuclear Physics and has left them jobless under the “reform of National Science Academy”. International Union of Science Academies and other institutions condemned the reform as “autocratic” and “counterproductive”.

Anyway, this is another story.

Mr. Berisha said that he has not yet discussed officially with Rome. So I can imagine what kind of “strategic planning” is happening. That of Mr. Berisha who reads newspapers to discover that Italian Government thinks that is possible to build a nuclear plant in Albania and he accept the offer simply in the same way, telling to Italian newspapers that “Albania would like to build nuke”. Anyway, this is not a serious story. The serious story for Albania is the fact that state utility company KESH, is going to produce this year alone €135m financial losses. This game risks the macroeconomic stability of the country.

No comments: