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In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused
the world's worst nuclear accident in 25 years, spewing
radiation over a swathe of Fukushima and forcing 160,000 people
from their homes.
The European Union, in response, carried out a series of stress
tests to examine the resilience of nuclear power stations and
used the results to draft a response plan based on the latest
international standards.
"We need to put all our efforts into making sure that the
highest safety standards are followed in every single nuclear
power plant across the EU," Energy Commissioner Guenther
Oettinger said in a statement.
The Commission found that safety improvements costing anywhere
between 10 billion and 25 billion euros were necessary in
European nuclear plants. There are 132 nuclear reactors in
operation in Europe today.
The new framework says that new nuclear power plants need to be
designed in a way that reactor damage will not have any
consequences outside the plant in order to prevent radioactive
leakage.
National regulators will also be required to draft a strategy on
how to communicate with the public if an accident happens and
citizens must be given the opportunity to take part in the
decision-making process to grant licenses for new nuclear
plants.
The new legislation also introduces a system of European peer
reviews to be carried out at least every six years.
It strengthens the independence and the powers of national
regulators. For the first time it sets out a clear nuclear
safety objective to further reduce safety risks, the Commission
said.
The EU's executive arm signed a cooperation memorandum with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in September last
year, designed to strengthen emergency preparedness and response
capabilities among others.
The agreement still needs formal approve from EU heads of
government in order to become law.
(Reporting by Martin Santa; editing by Jason Neely)
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