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Background
What has the EU done after the Fukushima
accident?
Nuclear safety: stress tests
Following last year's triple disaster in Japan,
the EU decided to take a critical look at its
nuclear power production and re-assess the
safety and security of all nuclear power plants
in the EU. All 14 Member States that operate
nuclear power plants (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the
Netherlands, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) and Lithuania,
which is decommissioning its nuclear power
producing units, agreed to participate in these
voluntary stress tests.
The stress tests go beyond safety evaluations
performed during normal licensing process and
periodic reviews. They assess whether nuclear
power plants can also cope with extreme
unexpected events. The Fukushima accident showed
us that two natural disasters can happen at the
same time: the nuclear power plant could
withstand the earthquake but could not cope with
an up to 20 meter high tsunami wave which
followed and cut off the power supply to the
plant.
The safety and security of nuclear power plants
is the responsibility of plant operators and
Member States. Ensuring and continuously
improving nuclear safety is nevertheless the
utmost priority of the European Commission. The
Commission is currently reviewing the EU legal
framework and will make, if appropriate, new
proposals later this year. When proposing
improvements to EU legislation and new
non-legislative actions, the Commission will
take into account the lessons learned from the
stress tests.
What is assessed by the nuclear stress tests?
The stress tests assess whether a nuclear power
plant can withstand the effects of the following
events:
1) Natural disasters: earthquakes, flooding,
extreme cold, extreme heat, snow, ice, storms,
tornados, heavy rain and other extreme natural
conditions.
2) Man-made failures and malevolent actions.
These events may include airplane crashes, fires
and explosions close to nuclear power plants,
whether accidental or resulting from terrorist
attacks.
What is the state of play of the stress
tests?
At the moment, we are in phase three of the
stress tests: multinational teams consisting of
Nuclear safety experts from EU Member States,
including those who do not operate nuclear power
plants (e.g. from Austria, Denmark, Ireland,
Luxembourg) are currently analysing the national
reports and verifying open issues on-site when
necessary. They are identifying key strengths
and weaknesses and will present concrete
recommendations for improvement on nuclear power
plant level. The peer review process started in
January 2012 and will be completed shortly.
This is the final phase of the stress tests
which consists of three distinctive phases:
1) Self-assessments. By 15 August 2011 nuclear
plant operators reported the results of their
self-assessments to national regulatory
authorities.
2) National reports. The national regulatory
authorities had to compile final national
reports and submit them to the European
Commission by 31 December 2011.
3) Peer reviews. The aim of this stage is to
provide a transparent, objective and
comprehensive EU-wide assessment of the
situation.
Which experts are members of these
multinational teams? How does it work?
Since beginning of January 2012, the peer review
members are examining all reports and written
material on an individual basis, having also the
opportunity to ask for additional information
from the nuclear power plant operator via the
national authority.
In the first part of the peer review process,
topical review meetings (for initiating events,
loss of safety functions, severe accident
management) were conducted in February,
involving nuclear safety experts from nuclear
and non-nuclear EU Member States, Switzerland,
Ukraine and the European Commission, as well as
observers from other countries (Croatia, Japan,
USA) and the IAEA.
As a second step, country review meetings will
take place. There are six country teams
consisting of six experts from national nuclear
safety authorities and a representative of the
European Commission.
The team members and the countries they are
visiting are published on the
ENSREG website.
The national authorities could decide, to which
countries they would like to send their experts
to. There was no single country which opposed to
specific experts checking their nuclear power
plants.
The European Commission's in-house science
service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), has
provided the Secretariat to the stress tests and
contributed to the elaboration of the stress
tests modalities and peer review methodology.
Building on its experience in nuclear safety,
the JRC has centralised technical support on
nuclear safety to the EC High Level Task Force.
The JRC team is composed of 18 experts and
mobilises the JRC requested expertise in all the
subjects of the stress tests. It provides the
secretariat for the planning and execution of
the review process and takes part in the peer
review missions to the participant countries. In
September 2011, the Member States' Nuclear
Safety Authorities participating in the stress
tests agreed that the JRC would also be the "rapporteur"
of the peer reviews.
How do you make sure that results are
credible?
As national experts are checking the power
plants in other countries, this will lead to
objectivity and make results comparable. There
will be no majority voting in the multinational
team. If one expert has doubts about the opinion
of the others, his remarks will be included in
the final report. We are aiming for the highest
transparency possible.
In every multinational team, there are experts
from countries which have nuclear power and from
countries which have not, as well as from the
European Commission. This adds objectivity and
credibility.
It is now a year after Fukushima. Why are
there no results available yet?
The Commission presented some initial results of
the stress tests in its Communication adopted on
24 November 2011. However, until the peer review
process is finalised, any conclusions on overall
stress test results for a particular Member
State or a specific plant would be premature.
While the tests are done in the fastest possible
manner, it would be wrong to press for early
results in exchange for thorough and in depth.
When will the final results of the stress
tests be known?
The Commission will present its final report on
the stress tests to the European Council in June
2012.
Will the Commission propose any concrete
action?
In parallel, on the basis of initial findings,
the European Commission is reviewing the EU
nuclear safety legislation and working on ways
for improvement.
In particular the Commission is considering:
- Minimum technical safety requirements. Today
different Member States apply different safety
margins in nuclear power plants. EU-level
technical criteria in the areas of siting, plant
design, construction and operation could be set.
For instance, the criteria could establish a
minimum distance of the plant from the sea.
These criteria should be a reference point when
licensing or checking the operations of the
plants.
- Licensing and checks. National regulatory
authorities are responsible for issuing licenses
for new nuclear power plants and controlling the
operation of the existing ones. To do this
effectively they need to be completely
independent. Their decisions and the reasoning
behind them should be made available for the
public.
- Cross-border emergency response. A possible
radiological emergency would not stop at
national borders. Therefore cross-border
emergency plans should be put in place. These
plans should foresee the availability and
sharing of healthcare and emergency response
equipment, such as back-up generators in the
event of loss of power in the plant.
- Improving nuclear liability coverage.
Different Member States apply different
liability regimes. For example, some countries
require unlimited liability in terms of
compensation to victims while in others only
limited amounts are available. Victim protection
should not depend on the nationality of the
victims, therefore measures are needed to
improve victim compensation in the EU.
Are the results of the stress tests public?
Yes. All reports, including national reports and
results of the peer reviews, are or will be
available at
www.ensreg.eu.
What will happen if a plant fails the tests?
In case a nuclear power plant fails the test and
an upgrade is not technically or economically
feasible, it should be shut down. Decisions on
individual installations remain a national
responsibility. However, the fact that the
results of the stress tests will be public
should ensure that all necessary steps will be
taken to guarantee the utmost safety and
security of all nuclear power plants in the EU.
What was the EU's action as regards the
controls on food products imported from Japan?
On 25 March 2011, the Commission took emergency
measures via a Regulation, providing that all
feed and food originated in or consigned from 12
prefectures around the nuclear power plant from
Fukushima in Japan have to be tested before
export to the EU. These measures complement the
extensive testing and controls carried out in
Japan. Since then, the EU measures have been
regularly amended in order to take account of
developments and of the data collected. The
measures provide a very high level of assurance
as to the safety of food and feed placed on the
EU market. About 2000 samples of feed and food
from Japan were controlled in 2011 since the
accident for the presence of radioactivity. Only
two samples showed non-compliant results.
What relevant research is the European
Commission funding?
The European Commission is funding research on
the safety of nuclear fuel and fuel cycles,
nuclear waste management and nuclear safeguards
and security. It is also funding research into
the effects and mitigation of natural disasters,
including earthquakes and tsunamis. Research is
being funded through a variety of means,
including:
- Euratom research and training programmes under
the 7th Framework Programme (FP7). Euratom
research and training programmes have existed
for more than fifty years, since the Treaty was
adopted. Under the 2012 work programme, a total
of €53 million is available for research and
training in the area of "Nuclear fission, Safety
and Radiation Protection". As far as concrete
collaboration with Japanese researchers is
concerned, five research topics in three
different activities have been identified in
2012 work programme: Impact of the nuclear
accident in Japan on Severe Accident Management;
Consequences of combination of extreme external
events on the safety of Nuclear Power Plants;
Contribution to low-dose risk research in
Europe; Update of emergency management and
rehabilitation strategies and expertise in
Europe; and Euratom Fission Training Schemes.
More information on
FP7-funded nuclear research.
- The Joint Research Centre (JRC). The JRC has
long standing collaboration with Japanese
research organisations in the safety of nuclear
fuel and fuel cycles, nuclear waste management
and nuclear safeguards and security. Following
the Fukushima accident, several Japanese
delegations visited the JRC - during these
visits, several potential areas for
collaboration were identified. The JRC's broad
nuclear fuel safety competences have been and
will be used in support of the Fukushima-Daiichi
post-accident analysis, remediation and
decommissioning. In this context, re-evaluation
of existing Severe Accident works are being
reviewed in collaboration with EU national
research organisations and new aspects
identified.
The JRC has also developed technologies and
systems to provide scientific and technical
support to global security and crisis
management. They allow the collection of
information, quantification of risks and the
dissemination of warnings to mitigate both
weather-driven and man-made disasters. This
helps to reduce the risks to populations from
events such as earthquakes and tsunamis. For
instance, the JRC's tsunami alert system is part
of the EU-UN
Global Disaster Alerts and Coordination System.
More information on
all research activities of the JRC
- The European Research Council. The European
Research Council (ERC) funds top-level frontier
research by awarding grants to individual
scientists and their teams in any field of
research. It contributes to better understand
the generation process for earthquakes and
tsunamis by funding several projects in these
areas. Fields of study include the mechanics of
faults in earthquakes, a floating robot capable
of detecting seismic waves, and the action and
reaction of civil protection and the population
during natural disasters.
More information on the
ERC
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