Brussels, 06/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The audit of the safety of nuclear reactors in operation in the EU will take a little longer than planned so that its quality can be ensured. Commissioner Günther Oettinger has promised the final results for late summer, rather than the end of June as initially planned.
As the first anniversary looms of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, on 11 March 2011, Oettinger said that the stress tests of nuclear power plants in 14 member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, plus Lithuania which is decommissioning the final part of its Ignalina power plant), which were supposed to be completed by the end of June, would now be finished “not later than summer”. “Thoroughness is more important than delivering quick results. Our multinational teams still need some time to finish the tests”, he says in a press release.
The stress tests, which were begun in June 2011 to measure the ability of nuclear installations in the EU to withstand natural disasters and technical failure against a set of common criteria agreed by the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and the Commission, are now in their third phase. After the report delivered at the end of October 2011 by plant operators, national safety authorities returned their assessments at the end of December. Peer assessment - by experts from other member states and the Commission - will lead to recommendations. National authority evaluations will not require any immediate shutdowns. (EH/transl.rt)