Brussels, 07/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - In the aftermath of the action by Greenpeace at the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear plant, taken in an attempt to expose the safety defects at nuclear plants in France, Corine Lepage MEP urged EU Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger to defend the extension of the application of stress tests to nuclear plants in the EU that are at risk of suffering from terrorist attacks.
Following the NGO Greenpeace activists entry into the nuclear power plant at Nogent-sur-Seine on 5 December, revealing “weaknesses in the physical security of the French installation”, Corine Lepage (ALDE) called on Oettinger, in a letter dated 6 December, “to emphasise the need for greater strictness in stress tests” at the 59 nuclear plants (housing a total of 143 nuclear reactors) located throughout the EU and subject to different levels of risk - natural disasters, human error or deliberate attack - in the wake of the accident in March at the Japanese Fukushima Daiichi plant. The MEP insisted that “the inadequacy of security measures is obvious, as is that of general risk prevention measures”. She deplored the fact that the results of the stress tests in France had not yet been made public, and also the lack of willingness displayed by the operator of the plants in France to make “sufficient investment to guarantee the high level of protection, which the entire European population has the right to expect”. She pointed out that the French nuclear industry does not have a genuine insurance system to guarantee compensation in the event of damages. Lepage pointed out to Oettinger that last June he himself had called for greater rigour in stress tests and for them to take into account possible terrorist acts. This demand had been rejected by member states with nuclear power, led by France and the United Kingdom, when arrangements for the stress tests were agreed between the national regulatory authorities on safety (ENSREG) and the European Commission on 24 May (see EUROPE 10386). (EH/transl.fl)