Nuclear safety

Commenting on today's Environment Council decision on the EU legislative nuclear safety proposal, Rebecca Harms, Co-President of the Greens/EFA-Group, said:

"EU governments are washing their hands of real responsibility for nuclear safety. This empty shell of a Directive is a gift to Nicolas Sarkozy and the nuclear lobby - a masquerade that has been entirely geared towards endorsing the safety of nuclear power stations instead of improving it. Existing nuclear power stations will not even be covered by the scope of the Directive.

"Member States clearly have no appetite for common, binding standards and are settling for the IAEA's nuclear safety "principles" to which they have already signed up. This Directive was an opportunity to commit to hard and fast technical standards, apparently a step too far for EU governments."

Notes to editors:

(1) See also Greens/EFA press release following the European Parliament vote on 22 April 2009:
http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/pressreleases/dok/280/280490.nuclear_safety@en.htm

(2) See the Greens/EFA Stop Climate Change campaign's detailed assessment of the nuclear safety directive