Brussels, 23/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - With the nuclear crisis still very much on-going in Japan, European leaders, meeting for their spring summit on 24-25 March, are expected to call for priority measures to assess the safety of EU nuclear facilities.
The major incident at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant following the tsunami of 11 March leads the member states, logically, to “draw the lessons” from events in Japan. EU heads of state and government will, then, agree on a strategy to test the 143 nuclear reactors operating in the EU and also future facilities against a series of threats they could potentially face. While all agree on the need for the highest levels of safety and transparency in the EU, member states, only 14 of which use atomic energy, disagree on the scope of and technical arrangements for these “stress tests”, which will be voluntary, anyway. Addressing the European Parliament on 23 March, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger repeated his desire for earthquakes, flooding and tidal waves, the age and design of the reactors, the loss of cooling, the design of emergency systems in the event of air crashes or terrorist attack to be included. The commissioner also wants the tests to be extended to the EU's neighbouring countries, such as Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Armenia.
On Friday, the European Council is expected to call for the stress tests to be implemented, with the scope still to be decided, in the light of the Japanese incident, by the European Nuclear Safety Regulatory Group (ENSREG), making full use of available expertise, notably that of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA). The European Council is also likely to encourage and back the conducting of these tests in countries neighbouring the EU, and throughout the world, whether on existing facilities or those under design. Member states are also likely to call for permanent application and improvement of rigorous nuclear safety standards in the EU and internationally. The Council is expected, too, to ask the Commission to examine the existing legislative and regulatory framework on the security and safety of nuclear facilities and, if necessary, to propose any necessary amendments. Member states will be called on fully to apply Directive 2009/71/Euratom on nuclear safety. (E.H./transl.rt)