Nuclear mattersEU nearing agreement on nuclear stress tests
The European Union could begin stress-testing its nuclear reactors as early as June 1; officials are nearing an agreement on the parameters for safety tests, but are still hammering out the last “two or three” issues; following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, European energy officials as well as industry groups have been pushing the government to conduct stress tests on its nuclear facilities to determine how they will fare in various disaster scenarios; EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has sought to include threats from terrorist attacks as well as cyber attacks, which has stalled stressed test negotiations
The European Union could begin stress-testing its nuclear reactors as early as June 1.
EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said officials are nearing an agreement on the parameters for safety tests, but are still hammering out the last “two or three” issues.
Following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, European energy officials as well as industry groups have been pushing the government to conduct stress tests on its nuclear facilities to determine how they will fare in various disaster scenarios.
Foratom, a European atomic industry group, has said that tests on nuclear plants should focus on natural disasters like earthquakes and floods rather than man-made events like terrorist attacks.
In particular, Foratom wants to determine if nuclear plants have adequate safety measures in place and that even if power supplies have been cut off plant operators are still able to deal with “severe accident management issues” like the loss of cooling in the core or in the spent fuel storage pool.
But Energy Commissioner Oettinger has sought to include threats from terrorist attacks as well as cyber attacks, which has stalled stressed test negotiations.
“We should focus on criteria ensuring that EU nuclear plants can withstand major natural disasters,” said Christian Taillebois, the director for external relations at Foratom. “Foratom supports the idea of stress tests. Still, they should be about safety, not about national security.”
Taillebois explained that testing a nuclear plant’s resiliency against terrorist attacks or cyber attacks would take longer and prevent officials from making the results public.
“Our feeling is that citizens in Europe are waiting for the results and we should announce them without delays. People don’t want to make things political and it’s important to prove that nuclear plants in Europe are safe,” she said.
The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan has led to protests across Europe against nuclear energy and even led Germany to temporarily suspend operations at its oldest nuclear reactors.
Ultimately it is up to the individual European Union member nation to determine whether it will use nuclear power, but safety is a shared responsibility between national and EU authorities.
Energy Commissioner Oettinger expects an agreement to be reached within the next several days.
