Fukushima

EU Debates Atomic Safety Checks as Spanish Quake Kills Eight

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Planned stress tests on European nuclear plants should focus on threats from natural disasters and exclude potential man-made catastrophes such as a terrorist attack, European atomic industry group Foratom said.

European nuclear officials are to decide today on parameters for the safety checks on atomic power plants in response to the Japanese nuclear crisis caused by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The meeting of the European Commission, the EU regulator, and 27 national nuclear safety authorities comes a day after Spain’s biggest earthquake in 57 years killed eight people.

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EU divided over nuclear plants' resistance to attack

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Europe's nuclear safety tests should be strengthened to include man-made crises, such as terrorist attacks or airplane crashes, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday.

European leaders agreed in March to subject Europe's 143 reactors to "stress tests," to guard against disasters such as the one at Japan's stricken Fukushima plant.

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How Angela Merkel became Germany's unlikely green energy champion

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is anything but a left-wing greenie. The party she leads, the Christian Democratic Union, is the political equivalent of the Republicans in the US. Her coalition government is decidedly pro-business. Often described as Europe's most powerful politician, Merkel's top priority is job creation and economic growth.

Yet if the chancellor succeeds with her new energy policy, she will become the first leader to transform an industrialized nation from nuclear and fossil fuel energy to renewable power.

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EU nuclear stress tests could prove less strenuous than expected

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Europe is preparing new stress tests designed to put nuclear power stations through their paces. It's a response primarily to the problems at Japan's Fukushima plant. But will the tests be as rigorous as promised?

The European Commission is set to present a draft for its new nuclear stress tests next week. While the Fukushima power plant, ravaged by an earthquake and tsunami, teetered on the brink of meltdown in March, European leaders agreed to set the "highest standards" of nuclear safety, with a mandatory round of new stress tests key to achieving this goal.

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