EU announced to conduct stress test, the document can be downloaded at:

WENRA proposal for EU safety checks

Comment by Patricia Lorenz, Friends of the Earth-Europe

The proposals for the stress tests, which were initiated by Austrian Minister Berlakovich, became known. Purpose of those had been to check the safety of European NPP whether they would cope with scenarios, which had been considered impossible until the accident at Fukushima.

The “WENRA Task Force”, the Western European Nuclear Regulator Association, prepared a proposal without the non-nuclear countries, where already a few sentences clearly show that stress - free times are to continue for European NPP: ”To perform the reassessments, the licencees may, due to time constraints, rely on the existing safety studies and engineering judgement.”

The events in Fukushima, which showed in a catastrophic manner, that the assumption valid up to now, in particular concerning earthquake design basis, hydrogen explosion and safety margins were wrong, that safety regulation is not taken seriously, does not lead to a mind shift of the European authorities.” The proposal suggests several issues, which the operators need to respond to, however, without minimum criteria. The operators simply explain how they arrive at their assumptions.

There is a point which shows a certain awareness for the problem: “Although the experience feedback from the Fukushima accident may include the emergency preparedness measures managed by the relevant off-site services for public protection (fire-fighters, police, health services…) this topic is out of scope of these stress tests.

Serious safety concerns are not even mentioned, which is operation of old nuclear power plants beyond design lifetime, plane crash and terrorism.

“This proposal is very disappointing, it turns the stress tests into a useless paper exercise. We call upon the EU governments to stop this irresponsibility and make sure serious stress test will be conducted for the citizens´ safety,” says Patricia Lorenz, FoEE antinuclear campaigner.

Time schedule: The operator prepare until September 15 their own assessment, which is than reviewed by their national regulators during the following 2 months, followed by the publication of the reports. Only then the non-nuclear states will get access, when ENSREG together with the EU Commission prepares the reports for the Council meeting on December 9 2011.