JASLOVSKE BOHUNICE, Slovakia — Tears roll down Michal Klepac's cheeks as he shakes his cane at the nuclear power plant where two Soviet-era reactors are slated for closure by a government eager to please the European Union.
The retired maintenance worker thinks it's foolish for Slovakia to close part of the Jaslovske Bohunice plant, slashing hundreds of jobs.
It's part of a sweeping reform program aimed at winning membership for Slovakia in the 15-nation EU, some of whose members are wary of nuclear power.
"It's the biggest stupidity that the government could have made," says Klepac, 74. "Why do we have to change what works?"
The plant's closure underlines the struggle that Slovakia and other former Soviet Bloc countries are facing in making hard choices to win membership in the European club. They are imposing inflation controls, cutting jobs at inefficient businesses and inflicting other kinds of economic pain to reform their economies.
Some fear the changes will lead to social and political instability in this country of 5.4 million, formerly part of now defunct Czechoslovakia.
"There is a danger that since the country must make these painful changes, some populist and ultranationalist politicians could come back to power. And that is very dangerous," said Milan Reban, a political scientist at the University of North Texas who studies the former communist countries of Europe.
The risk of the screws being tightened too hard or too fast threatens places like Jaslovske Bohunice, a village 35 miles from the capital, Bratislava.
About 1,200 people--mostly from this village of 1,700--will lose their jobs when the two reactors are taken offline in the next five years or so. Thousands more who do contract work in about 200 villages surrounding the plant will also lose their main income.
But the effects will be nationwide, say energy experts who warn that energy prices are certain to rise when the reactors are closed.
Shutting down the two oldest of the plant's four reactors will take away 16% of Slovakia's electricity production. The two others produce 22%, and a nuclear-powered plant in Mochovce provides 21%.
"We were pressured to make this decision," says Pavol Hamzik, deputy prime minister for EU integration. "We had to pay this high price if we wanted to catch up with our neighbors."
