Greenpeace nuclear energy expert Jan Haverkamp said: “Europe has failed to learn some of the vital lessons from Fukushima and remains woefully unprepared for similar accidents. We call on the Commission and regulators to act now to ensure that European nuclear operators address these serious safety concerns.”The report analyses national action plans that are based on a series of nuclear ‘stress tests‘ set up in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March 2011. It found that several countries in Europe have failed to implement crucial protection measures against earthquakes, floods and hydrogen explosions, and the installation of proper pressure safety valves to prevent the release of radioactivity into the environment in case of accident. The lack of such valves at the Fukushima reactor forced operators to face the dilemma of risking over-pressurisation and explosion, or releasing radioactivity and therefore contaminating the environment and population.
In a communication on the Energy Union last February, the European Commission said the EU should have the world’s safest nuclear generation by using the highest standards of safety, security, waste management and non-proliferation.
ENSREG was mandated by the European Council and the European Commission to carry out the stress tests and is expected to present the results of its own peer-review of national action plans.
