The no nonsense Swiss Energy Minister Doris Leuthard suspended the approvals process for the three new reactors pending a safety review in Switzerland, immediately after the nuclear meltdown disaster of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan when the earthquake struck on March 11.
And this Wednesday, just days after a huge anti-nuclear rally in Switzerland, the government Cabinet said it had decided to make the nuclear energy ban permanent.
The Swiss government decided Wednesday to abandon all plans to build new nuclear reactors, while European Union regulators agreed on a framework for stress-testing their nuclear reactors, as repercussions from the disaster in Japan continue to ripple across Europe.
The country’s five existing reactors — which supply about 40 percent of the country’s power, will be allowed to continue operating under strict supervision and enhanced safety systems, but would not be replaced at the end of their life span. The last Swiss reactor will go offline in 2034.
In a statement, the Cabinet said it was responding to the desires of the Swiss people to reduce risks “in the face of the severe damage that the earthquake in Fukushima caused.”
However, it said that there was no need to shut down plants ahead of schedule, insisting that their safe operation was assured.
The lengthy phase-out will also allow time for Switzerland to develop new energy sources and improve energy efficiency, adding that long-term, nuclear energy was expected to lose its competitive advantage over renewable sources of energy because the costs associated with nuclear power, such as for new safety standards and equipment, are expected to climb.
The nuclear fuel meltdowns in Japan have prompted different reactions in other parts of Europe. France, which relies on nuclear power for about 80 percent of its electricity and is a major exporter of nuclear technology, has reaffirmed its commitment to the technology. Just across the border, however, the German government reversed a previous decision to extend the life of its nuclear plants and is working on a plan to accelerate the phase out there.
Meanwhile, national regulators from across the 27-nation European Union are planning new safety tests for the 143 operating nuclear reactors in their territories.
On Wednesday, they agreed that the tests would include some man-made disasters as well as natural ones. But the European Commission said that there would be a separate process to check whether nuclear operators could adequately thwart acts of terrorism, because of sharp differences among governments about encroaching on sensitive areas of defense and security.
The E.U. energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, said at a news conference in Brussels that the tests would be robust.
“The quality and the depth of this stress test is such as to fulfill the requirements of the European citizen to live in a safe environment,” Mr. Oettinger said. “All of this will be done in as transparent way as possible.”
The Environmental Parliament supports the use of stress tests to gauge the validity of the nuclear energy safety concerns.
Still it says, the tests must be independent, and cover plans for emergencies and allow the results to tell us whether some of Europe’s most obvious terrorist targets are protected or not.
Britain, France and the Czech Republic were among countries that had fought hardest to water down the tests, Mr. Haverkamp said.
Britain generates only around 18 percent of its electricity from nuclear power but faces the prospect of a worsening energy shortfall if it is required to shut its reactors. The Czech Republic still mines uranium for sale to nuclear power generators.
Still, atomic power remains a hugely sensitive matter after the Ukrainian nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 spread fallout across the Continent.
Although the tests remain voluntary, the European Commission recommended that the 14 member states with reactors producing electricity begin testing for so-called man-made events by June 1.
Those tests would in some cases be more rigorous than routine safety checks. For example, power plants built to withstand earthquakes of a magnitude of 6.0 would be tested for earthquakes of a higher magnitude, although it would be up to the authorities in each country to define how much tougher to make the criteria.
The tests also would include peer-review teams composed of seven people, drawing from regulators from all 27 E.U. countries and the European Commission. Those teams would have leeway to conduct inspections inside nuclear plants.
According to the commission, the key goal of the tests is to prevent the kind of accident in Europe that struck the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The commission said nuclear operators would need to describe what would happen if their reactors lost power for “several days” and what measures were in place if primary backup systems powered by batteries also failed.
The tests would include a review of containment systems to ensure they could withstand an air crash or the explosion of a nearby oil tanker, whether as a result of an accident or a terror attack. The tests would also seek to ascertain whether there were adequate systems to put out any resulting fire from explosions occurring near nuclear power plants.
The E.U. authorities still need to set a schedule for checking whether reactors could withstand a wider range of terror attacks, possibly including cyber attacks. Those tests are far more sensitive because governments want to avoid revealing any vulnerabilities of their reactors.
The commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said that reactors failing the tests should be shut down and decommissioned if safety upgrades were too difficult or too expensive. But it acknowledged that it had no authority to order such shutdowns.
The European Commission said national operators and regulators had agreed to make their findings public, despite initial concerns in Paris and London that publishing certain information might encourage attacks. Governments would present a final report on the tests at the end of year.
Yours,
Pano
PS:
In the G8 meetings of Deauville the nuclear energy future is centre stage.
It has been discussed in the preparatory meetings and all hands are up that the G8 leaders will endorse some form of safety review and global nuclear reactor stress test standards.
Tomorrow will deliver at the G8 my speech on Energy Security for a New Millennium and hope to see old and new friends there.
