President: Slovakia Can Become World Leader in Nuclear Energy

Warsaw, April 29 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovakia is about to achieve a great success in the field of nuclear energy as after the launch of the fourth unit of the Mochovce power plant, it has a chance to overtake France in the percentage of electricity generated from nuclear power and become the world leader in this field, President Peter Pellegrini told a press conference after the plenary session of the heads of state at the summit of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI - 13 states located in the region between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas) in Warsaw on Tuesday. "It's fine to focus on renewable sources, but then we have to wait to see if the sun is shining in the south of Europe and there is enough of it, or if the wind is blowing in the north," said the president, pointing out that nuclear power plants produce energy round the clock. Pellegrini also said that Slovakia has built gas pipeline and electricity grid interconnections with all its neighbours and will become a net exporter of electricity once the fourth unit at Mochovce is operational. The Slovak head of state stressed that at a time when the demand for stable energy sources is growing, especially due to artificial intelligence and digital technologies, Slovakia has an advantage over other countries that rely on unstable renewable energy sources, thanks to nuclear and hydropower. He also mentioned research into the reuse of spent nuclear fuel, which could put Slovakia among world leaders in energy innovation. Regarding Ukraine, the president said that Slovakia is stabilising its energy network by exporting electricity. "Despite the fact that we're suffering from the fact that gas has stopped flowing through Ukraine, Slovakia is fulfilling its assistance as it should," he added, stressing that Ukrainian experts have valuable know-how in being able to quickly restore damaged infrastructure after their experience with war damage, which can also be beneficial for other countries, referring to the recent power outage in Spain. am