EU to begin nuclear stress tests in June

EU to begin nuclear stress tests in June

2011-05-25 20:34:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The European Union (EU) on Wednesday announced that nuclear stress tests would begin on June 1, following Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis, which began since the country's March 11 earthquake.

The European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators' Group, which represents the 27 independent national authorities responsible for nuclear safety, on Wednesday agreed on the scope and the modalities for a comprehensive risk and safety assessment of EU nuclear power plants.

The EU confirmed that all 143 nuclear power plants in the region would be re-assessed using the EU-wide criteria starting June 1.

According to the EU, the stress tests would be conducted to re-assess the safety margins of EU nuclear power plants in order to guarantee the "highest safety standards in the world."

The EU said it would learn from Japan's Fukushima disaster, focusing the nuclear tests on all sorts of natural disasters that also includes the effects of man-made accidents such as airplane crashes as well as terrorist or other malevolent attacks.

Multinational teams of seven people – one European Commission representative and six Members of the 27 national regulators - will review national reports and can decide to inspect nuclear plants on the spot.

"I appreciate that the Commission and the Member States' regulators have been able to agree on comprehensive and ambitious risk and safety assessments for nuclear power plants," said Günther Oettinger, Commissioner for Energy. "We will put all our efforts into implementing the highest safety standards for nuclear power plants in and close to the European Union. The tough part starts now: implementing the criteria with all the necessary rigor."

However, following discussions with Member States, which recognized, among other things, the importance of confidentiality, all security-related aspects such as measures preventing terrorist attacks would be dealt separately.

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