Strasbourg, 11/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of a two-day meeting - on 12-13 May - of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) to decide, in the light of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power station in Japan, on the criteria for the stress tests of the 143 nuclear reactors located on EU soil, the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, put a little more fuel on the fire on Wednesday 11 May, when he pleaded for the human factor to be taken into account as a risk, alongside disasters caused by natural phenomena.
The stress tests “must be complete and include the broadest possible range of scenarios, including natural and human factors, and focusing on their possible impact on the functioning systems of the power stations”, said the head of the European executive in a press release. However, Barroso did not refer specifically to the aeroplane accidents and terrorist acts his colleague for Energy, Günther Oettinger, insists should be included among the stress test criteria.
Meeting in the framework of the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA), the 14 member states of the EU which use atomic power intend to limit the criteria of the stress tests to natural disasters alone, such as those which caused the Japanese nuclear accident. They take the view that the ability of the power stations to stand up to three factors should be assessed: violence from natural phenomena (storms, earthquakes, floods), a loss of safety systems (extended breakdown of cooling system or electricity supply) and serious accident (damage to fuel in the reactor, problems cooling the pools where the spent fuel is stored). This rules out the scenario of a terrorist attack, a cyber-attack or an aeroplane crash. An official from the French nuclear safety authority, André-Claude Lacoste, argues that it is “not possible to carry out serious studies into terrorist risks within such a short space of time”. The stress tests are to be carried out in June, with their results expected in December.
Commissioner Oettinger, for his part, told the European Parliament on Tuesday 10 May of the misgivings of the nuclear member states. “A watered-down stress test will not bear my signature. If we do not reach an agreement between the Commission and the European regulators, then we may put the mandate (for drawing up the criteria) back to the Council”, he warned. Oettinger was due to present his proposals to the nuclear safety authorities of the 27 member states on Wednesday evening, aiming to “take account of all risks, whatever their nature, including human factors, failures, terrorist actions, IT attacks and aeroplane accidents”. “It is in the interests of the European population to ensure that these tests are as exhaustive as possible”, he stressed. According to Community sources, a compromise is believed to be possible, consisting of not explicitly referring to terrorist acts, by adopting wording referring to “actions imputed to people”.
On Tuesday, the vast majority of MEPs spoke out strongly against the refusal of several countries to take account of human risks. “The Commission must not give in to member states which are pushing for more flexible tests. The criteria of these tests should not only include natural disasters, but also threats of human origin, such as terrorist attacks or aeroplane crashes”, said Marita Ulvskog of Sweden, on behalf of the Socialists & Democrats (S&D), going on to call for the tests to be carried out by independent experts, not by the owners of the nuclear plants. “Commissioner Oettinger must guarantee the credibility of the stress tests, in order to impose the strictest safety standards, minimise the nuclear risk in Europe, in view of the fact that this risk will disappear only with a gradual but determined phasing-out of nuclear. In particular, he must reaffirm his authority against the approaches of the pro-nuclear countries which want to make this audit into a PR exercise without calling any existing or future power stations into question”, said French Greens Michèle Rivasi and Yannick Jadot. (E.H./transl.fl)