Nuclear power station stages bikini contest to choose new interns

A nuclear power plant has been accused of sexism after it emerged that it was using a bikini competition to choose its interns.

Czech power plant CEZ posted 10 images of high school graduates dressed in swimsuits and posing in the Temlin nuclear power plants’ cooling tower.

The Facebook post, which has over 1,300 likes, encourages followers to vote for the one they like best.

The young woman with the most votes will be titled "Bouncer of Energy" and given the opportunity to spend two weeks on an internship with the company.

The company claimed the competition was a continuation of previous cultural enrichment programs according to German news outlet Deutsche Welle.

However, many took to social media to criticise the company for picking interns based on their physical appearance.

“So that’s how you qualify to work for an AKW," one Twitter user wrote. "Incredible!"

Another wrote: "Undress and you get an internship - this can not be serious, it's degrading, disgusting and primitive."

A spokesperson for CEZ told The Independent that the company offered around 900 internships and excursions for students every year.

"Most of them are organised for the high schools and universities that are members of our partnership program," they said. "Some of the internships/excursions are however customarily offered for the winners of competitions either organised by CEZ or by the third parties.

"In these cases[we] promote specific issues (mainly corporate social responsibility). In this case the participants of the Czech beauty contest Maturantka Roku, translated as the Graduate of the Year were photographed in the environment of the Temelin power plant.

"The fans on the Facebook page of the Information Centre Temelin could cast a vote on the Facebook page and choose a girl that would receive a short internship according to her preferences - if she plans to study journalism, she would do the internship in the press office, if she plans to study economy, she might do it in the economy department.

"The voting was possible only for a brief period of time – around one day – and then we stopped it. We haven’t announced any winner and we apologised."

The company later stated on its Facebook page that all 10 finalists were offered the internship.

"The purpose of the competition was to promote technical education," it said. "But if the original vision raised doubts or concerts, we are very sorry.”