EU Proposes Tighter Rules for Nuclear Safety

On Wednesday, the European Commission proposed new rules for the safety of nuclear power throughout the European Union. With the new standards, the Commission aims to implement binding safety standards in all current member states, including the ten new candidate countries up for accession in 2004.

Nuclear safety first

The Commission has set nuclear safety high on the agenda in the preparations heading up to EU enlargement. As a condition for membership Slovakia, Lithuania and Bulgaria have promised to shut down unsafe reactors and the Czech Republic is in the process of upgrading its nuclear plants.

But when these countries join the EU, there is nothing to stop them from abandoning these security measures, simply because there are no common rules for nuclear safety in the EU.

"We clearly have two standards," EU Commissioner Loyola de Palacio says. In order to solve this problem, Palacio suggests integrating the guidelines set by the International Atomic Energy Association into EU law.

But both Britain and France, large producers of nuclear energy, want to keep it the way it is, and say these guidelines, which are not legally binding, are more than enough.

More supervision

Under the proposals, each country would have to set up an independent nuclear safety authority, which would include half of the ten applicants, which between them have nine nuclear plants and 27 reactor blocks of Soviet design. These authorities would then undergo thorough monitoring by European Commission inspectors.

In addition, the Commission wants to implement special funds to finance decommissioning, in order to guarantee the safety of a nuclear plant if the operating company goes bankrupt. The decommissioning of an aging reactor can cost up to one billion euro.

Furthermore, the Commission has proposed a 2018 deadline for burying nuclear waste which currently is mostly kept in containers on the sites of nuclear plants.

Too weak for Germany

The proposals will now be forwarded to the European Parliament and the European Council for further debate. But whether they will be passed remains questionable: Not only France and Britain, but also Germany, which is in the process of reducing its nuclear power capacities, is expected to express strong opposition to the proposals. On Wednesday, the Greens' Member of Parliament Hiltrud Breyer said the guidelines were "pure eyewash."