Nuclear safety

The European Commission is today set to present long-awaited plans for revising EU rules on nuclear safety. The Greens expressed regret at the major shortcomings in the proposal, with Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms stating:

"Today's proposals to revise EU nuclear safety legislation are seriously underwhelming and fail to live up to the promises of EU commissioner Oettinger to truly provide ambitious rules. The proposals have been tailored to the demands of the nuclear industry and should be seen as little more than a further attempt to legitimise nuclear power, with a view to prolonging the lifespan of ageing reactors. This is in spite of the urgent need to address the patchwork of substandard nuclear safety rules in EU member states.

"The proposals fail to set out up-to-date safety criteria for nuclear power plants, which live up to the latest scientific and technical standards. As with the toothless EU nuclear stress tests, the risks of terrorist attacks or sabotage are completely ignored. Commissioner Oettinger makes clear that the bottom line of the nuclear industry comes first, leaving public safety as an inconvenient afterthought.

"The proposals to strengthen provisions on transparency and the independence of the regulatory authorities are nonetheless to be welcomed and should hopefully address some of the conflicts of interest that exist. However, this fails to mitigate the overall weakness of these plans."