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France doesn’t want airline crashes included as nuclear safety threat

principally France, see the measure as excessively burdensome, fearing it could force the closure of plants that would otherwise be deemed fit for operation.

EU divided over inclusion of plane crashes in nuclear tests, EU Observer, ANDREW WILLIS, 4 May 11, BRUSSELS – EU member states are divided over the need to include airplane crashes as a criterion in European nuclear stress tests, currently being drawn up in response to Japan’s accident….. A final decision on whether the voluntary stress tests should be limited to natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods is likely to be taken by national nuclear regulators next week.

Non-nuclear Austria, various green groups and some members of the European Parliament are adamant that 9/11-style plane strikes must be included if the tests are to be sufficiently credible to allay concerns.

“It should not be another alibi test,” Austrian economy minister Reinhold Mitterlehner told journalists at a separate event on Tuesday.

But other member states, principally France, see the measure as excessively burdensome, fearing it could force the closure of plants that would otherwise be deemed fit for operation.

A latest draft of the stress test criteria – drawn up by the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association – says power plants must be able to withstand various extreme natural events, but makes no mention of plane crashes, reports the Wall Street Journal…..http://euobserver.com/9/32263

May 4, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general