Brussels, 04/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On 12 May, the European Commission and ENSREG are due to publish details of the nuclear stress tests for the 143 nuclear power stations operating in the EU. The tests would start in June and the results would be unveiled in December 2011. There are rumours that cyberattacks and plane crashes would not be covered by the tests.
EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger promised in Gödöllõ on Tuesday 3 May, where he was attending a meeting of the 2-3 May EU Energy Council chaired by the Hungarian Presidency, that strict tests were being planned to see how EU nuclear power plants would survive various dangers, including the catastrophe that hit Japan on 11 March this year (earthquake and tsunami), giving rise to the nuclear disaster still ongoing at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station The commissioner's department is working with the national nuclear safety authorities' body (ENSREG) on the tests, and will be publishing on 12 May details of what will be tested, explained the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU on Tuesday, adding that the tests will start in June 2011 and the results submitted to the December 2011 European Council.
Oettinger said on Tuesday that the nuclear tests would be strict and objective, but the areas tested (probably six in total) could well fall far short of what was initially announced. According to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung on 4 May, quoting close European Commission sources, the tests might be restricted to natural disasters (earthquakes, floods and temperature extremes) but not even examine problems like terrorist attacks by means of plane crashes or human error. The chair of the Energy Council, Hungarian Energy Minister Tamas Fellegi, admitted that the impact of a potential plane crash had not yet been included in the nuclear stress tests, although it had not been ruled out.
In the draft nuclear stress tests unveiled early last month, the Western European Nuclear Regulator Association (WENRA), where France's nuclear safety body ASN has huge influence, wants three situations to be tested: natural disasters (storms, earthquakes and floods), loss of safety systems (lengthy shut-down of cooling systems or electricity blackouts) and serious accidents, (like damage to the fuel cells within the reactor and cooling problems for the pools where used fuel is stored), but makes no mention of cyberattacks and plane crashes.
Europe's leaders agreed in March 2011, however, that such issues should be examined in the nuclear stress tests. According to Oettinger's department, quoted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, member states would be free to carry out even stricter tests, if they wanted. But the newspaper reports that the EU nuclear surveillance authorities have suggested that the nuclear industry (the companies that run the power plants) could make do with a written report to be sent to the European Commission without any independent experts being sent to the power stations! The countries with the greatest number of nuclear power stations in Europe, France and the UK, are reported to be lobbying hard to make the stress tests less stringent.
On Wednesday, the environment minister of the EU country most opposed to nuclear power, Nikolaus Berlakovich of Austria, slammed the weakness of the planned nuclear stress tests which do not examine how nuclear plants would survive cyberattacks or plane crashes. He regretted that EU heads of state had not decided to make tests of how power stations would survive terrorist attacks compulsory. He pointed out that truly independent experts needed to carry out the tests because it made absolutely no sense for nuclear power stations to test themselves (referring to suggestions that the nuclear industry should carry out its own tests and submit them to the European Commission). Berlakovich called on Commissioner Oettinger to draw up stricter tests.
At the European Parliament on Wednesday, the Greens set out the shortcomings in the nuclear stress tests and the fact that they ignore the threat of terrorist attack. “Based on current drafts, the proposed EU nuclear stress tests look set to fall far short of rigorously assessing the potential risks and safety of Europe's nuclear reactors. As currently constituted, the stress tests would fail to assess the risks of 'stress' posed to nuclear reactors from a host of potential scenarios. This only serves to underline fears that these stress tests are part of a strategy on the part of the nuclear industry to assuage growing public concerns about nuclear safety and lull the public back to a false sense of security on the risks of nuclear”, explained Rebecca Harms (Germany) in a press release. “Crucially, the stress tests would fail to assess the ability of a reactor to withstand the impact of a passenger plane crash, as well as other potential terrorist attacks. The foiled plot at Sellafield yesterday evening is a timely reminder of the very real threat of a terrorist stack on nuclear installations, which would have catastrophic consequences. That this would be simply omitted is scandalous... The Commission and Council should instead be moving to immediately shut down the most dangerous reactors, where the threat is already widely known, and developing a comprehensive nuclear phase-out strategy.” (E.H./transl.fl)