EU Nuclear Tests

European Union energy ministers predicted it would take months to start EU-wide nuclear “stress tests” as Germany led a push for stringent common rules and said national leaders must tackle the matter later this week. The energy ministers from the 27-nation EU said checks on the region’s 143 atomic plants following Japan’s nuclear accident would probably get under way in the second half of this year on a voluntary basis. The tests may cover threats from earthquakes, floods, airplane crashes and terrorists as well as reactors’ cooling systems and their age, said EU officials. “I’m not sure that all countries will proceed in as demanding a manner as we have planned in Germany,” German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, who also handles energy policy, told reporters in Brussels after the emergency EU meeting. He said his support for mandatory European tests failed to win the backing of some participants.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged uniform standards across the EU and said she will raise the issue at a March 24-25 meeting of the bloc’s leaders. She decided last week that Germany will keep its seven oldest nuclear reactors offline as part of the nationwide safety review to run through June. Merkel’s Christian Democratic party dropped votes and the Greens doubled their support yesterday in the first electoral test of Germany’s response to Japan’s accident. The vote in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt was the second of seven German regional ballots this year.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the bloc must come up with a checklist reflecting the concerns of European and national authorities, including in countries that don’t produce atomic energy. Oettinger, Bruederle and Hungarian National Development Minister Tamas Fellegi recommended that non-EU nations bordering the bloc such as Switzerland and Turkey also be involved in the tests.

“We should aim to have this assessment under way before the end of the year,” said Fellegi, who chaired the energy meeting because Hungary holds the EU’s rotating presidency. “We should avoid any hasty decisions.” Bloomberg