Brussels, 20/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - More than two months after the earthquake and tsunami which devastated the north-east coast of Japan on 11 March, causing a massive incident at the Fukushima Daiichi power station, the EU has still not reached agreement on the criteria for the stress tests which member states with nuclear power plants will have to apply to their installations before the end of the year.
The Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators' Group (ENSREG) have yet to confirm the compromise of 13 April which separates assessment of the safety of reactors to natural hazards, disasters and accident, and that of safety in the event of terrorist attack or sabotage. The deliberately vague compromise also made provision for testing the safety of reactors against earthquakes and flooding, and also against all types of accident, whether human or natural in origin. Since the national authorities acknowledge that they have no power on issues of security against terrorism, the compromise proposes that a working group be set up, bringing together experts from member states and the Commission, to assess the threats to power station security, including against terrorist attack. The exact format, remit and working method of this group were due to be agreed this week.
A trial of strength has been engaged for several weeks between the member states which have nuclear power stations and which, grouped in the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA), want to restrict the stress tests to assessing the resistance of power stations to three hazards: natural phenomena (storms, earthquakes and flooding), the loss of safety systems (cooling or electricity supply) and serious accidents (damage to fuel in the reactor, difficulties with cooling ponds where spend fuel is deposited) and Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, who wants all possible risks to be considered, including terrorist attack, cyber-attack and aeroplane crashes.
Oettinger said on Friday 20 May that he was confident that agreement would be reached before the end of May. “We need another few days and I am confident that we can begin the tests on 1st June”, he said on the sidelines of a conference in Frankfurt. “Most of the criteria have been agreed, only two or three issues remain to be resolved. It is my intention, my aim and my interest to find a joint agreement in the coming days”, he had said the previous day at the nuclear forum in Prague.
Germany and Austria, arguing for much more stringent stress tests, including assessment of the resistance of reactors to terrorist attack, conducted by independent nuclear industry experts, managed, on 18 May, to block the compromise reached by the United Kingdom, France, Finland and the Czech Republic in the ENREG. Inclusion of resistance to terrorist attack would mean a considerably higher bill for power plant operators.
In addition to his intransigence with regard to inclusion in the stress test criteria of human risks and risks due to human error, Oettinger is also accused of blocking the compromise being put forward by the majority of national safety authorities, by demanding that he be in charge of setting up the expert group on security. The French view this as exceeding his responsibilities as a European commissioner. “The heads of state and government gave a mandate to the safety authorities of all member states. Now this mandate has to be put into operation … Nuclear safety is much too important to be used for politicking, as is happening at the moment”, said the French energy minister in Prague on Thursday. “With terrorism, we are moving to something different. We are not against the suggestion of moving on at a later stage to working on security issues, but there will have to be a second mandate given by heads of state and government agreeing to a second stage which includes security and terrorism issues - issues which are much more difficult to discuss among 27”, the French minister is quoted by Reuters as saying.
Stress tests, then, will come back onto the table at the Energy Council of 10 June, and perhaps even the European Council of 24 June. Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, who hosted the Prague forum, confirmed that the matter would be discussed at the energy ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on 10 June. (E.H./transl.rt)