Brussels, 08/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - Thirty-three nations, the G8 and members of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) agreed on Tuesday 7 June on the need to rethink nuclear safety in civilian matters after the catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan on 11 March, stressing the need for greater international cooperation and tighter world standards. The idea of regular stress tests on power plants in operation was agreed by all, but compulsory peer-review was rejected.
On the prevention of nuclear hazards, broad consensus emerged in Paris on Tuesday among the representatives of the 33 nations at the seminar organised by the French Presidency of the G8 and G20 on nuclear safety following the G8 talks in Deauville recently (see EUROPE 10388) about the need for all countries which have nuclear power stations to carry out safety audits - stress tests to measure the safety of power plants and how they could cope with serious incidents, explains a press release issued by the French ecology minister, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, who chaired the meeting at the OECD headquarters on Tuesday. In a conclusions document, the participant countries stressed the need to make regular assessments of the safety of their power plants at each stage of their use and to boost the role of the IAEA and the OECD nuclear safety agency to ensure greater harmonisation of safety practices. The press release explains that at the meeting, the French chair had asked the IAEA to update its safety standards in the light of the Fukushima disaster and to ensure they were properly applied. As requested by the G8, the IAEA was asked to update its building and running standards for nuclear power stations in earthquake areas in the light of the global impact of natural disasters.
The idea of giving the IAEA a greater role was unanimously agreed upon on Tuesday, but not the idea of giving it binding powers to force countries to meet international safety standards. Participant countries, however, headed by Switzerland, stressed the need for peer review of the safety of power plants in the countries in question. The Swiss federal environment councillor, Doris Leuthard, whose country has decided to get rid of nuclear power by 2034, said on Tuesday that the peer reviews, ideally by the IAEA, should be made compulsory and the results should be publicised.
In terms of nuclear disaster management, the participant countries agreed on the idea of making international solidarity more tangible for dealing with catastrophes like in Japan, by forming rapid intervention teams, pooling rescue and aid resources and organising international training in nuclear disaster crisis management.
The conclusions document from the seminar will be submitted on Wednesday to the nuclear safety authorities of the OECD countries at a meeting in Paris, and the summary of the two day workshop will be submitted to IAEA for its meeting in Vienna on 20-24 June to discuss world nuclear safety. (E.H./transl.fl)