Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann yesterday demanded full access to construction of an expanded nuclear power plant in neighbouring Slovakia that is the cause of considerable unease in Vienna.

“We are very critical of the expansion of (nuclear power) plants no matter which neighbouring country,” Chancellor Faymann said in a statement after a meeting with new Slovakian Prime Minister Iveta Radicova.

“Slovakia wants to double the capacity of the Mochovce plant. I demand that Austria be involved completely in all safety matters and we are given all the data on the expansion,” he said.

Austria, which is strongly opposed to nuclear energy, has criticised Slovakia for not taking into account its concerns over safety systems at the Mochovce plant, located 160 kilometers east of the capital Vienna.

The Mochovce plant has two Soviet-designed pressurised water reactors that were put into operation in the late 1990s after safety upgrades by Western companies.

Slovakia wants to complete another two reactors on which construction was halted in the 1990s due to a lack of finance, and has awarded contracts to the French group Areva, Germany’s Siemens and Austrian building company Strabag.