Brussels, 05/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - In response to action taken by the NGO, Greenpeace, in France to illustrate security failings in nuclear plants, the Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament denounces the inadequate standard of criteria to be met, set out in the stress tests used at European level.
Determined to illustrate security shortcomings in nuclear installations, Greenpeace activists managed, on Monday morning 5 December, to enter the nuclear plant at Nogent-sur-Seine, to the south-east of Paris. The French home minister, Claude Guéant, recognised there were failings in the security of the power plant in question, and his colleague for energy, Eric Besson, called for an in-depth investigation to be carried out, while the French President Nicolas Sarkozy promised there would be transparency in publication of the nuclear safety appraisals carried out on the country's 19 nuclear power plants.
The Greens/EFA at the European Parliament, under the leadership of Yannick Jadot of France, for their part denounced the insufficient criteria of stress tests conducted in the 14 EU member states that use nuclear energy, in order to assess risks since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. In a press release, Jadot states that Greenpeace's action proves it is easy to gain entry to a power plant, which is particularly worrying given the proximity of the Nogent-sur-Seine plant to a highly populated area, which goes to show how vulnerable the French nuclear installations are and how inadequate controls carried out are. In his view, this also proves that pan-European stress tests are unable to assess the risks posed by internal factors such as fires, human failing, degradation or dysfunction of infrastructure, or a combination of these factors, and do not correctly assess the risk of external threats, such as an air crash or human intrusion. He concludes by saying that the tests are simply a public relations exercise that allows the nuclear industry to continue with its old habits and to promote the lowest level of security. (EH/transl.jl)