Brussels, 27/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The programme of stress tests on nuclear power plants operating within the EU, which was due to be completed in June, has been extended to allow more detailed inspections.
Member states which have nuclear plants will now have more time to carry out their stress tests. The European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG), which had set a deadline of June 2012 for the tests, conducted following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in March 2011, agreed on Thursday 26 April to extend the timescale. ENSREG will submit an initial report to EU energy ministers in June. The final report will come only in the autumn. This will allow more time for inspections, said Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger on Thursday. In its interim report, ENSREG concludes that those countries which have been called upon to do so have “taken significant steps to improve the safety of their plants”. “We will do additional visits of power plants and analyse some safety aspects in more detail. EU citizens have the right to know and understand how safe the nuclear power plants are they live close to”, Oettinger said.
There are, in all, 147 reactors in 14 countries of the EU, and 24 new reactors are planned, including six already under construction in Bulgaria, Finland, France and Slovakia. Only 38 reactors have been inspected. (EH/transl.rt)