The FINANCIAL — Europe on Wednesday will draw up stress-test parameters for a safety sweep of its nuclear power reactors, promised after Japan's Fukushima No.1 disaster, but already the focus of bitter disputes.
For experts stand accused of turning a blind eye to the risk of terror attacks or aircraft accidents — and of being in thrall to the powerful industry lobby governing their career prospects.
The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) has been entrusted with the job of checking whether ageing power plants can withstand the sort of natural disaster that triggered the meltdown in Japan.
It was the EU's 27 heads of state and government who opted to hand the design of the tests to their domestic regulators. ENSREG will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to agree on the criteria.
But the meeting comes as anti-nuclear politicians and campaigners object that the industry lobby, backed by the biggest players in France and Britain, have secured an easy ride.
The EU's energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger has also made it clear he will not settle for a watered-down set of tests.
"I will not put my signature to a stress test which does not live up to my expectations nor to those of the broader public," Oettinger, of Germany, warned in an interview with the German weekly Spiegel.
"I do not agree with the fact that man-made disasters should be tested on a voluntary basis only," he added.
But Oettinger insists he is prepared to lodge new legislative proposals this year in a bid to force a tougher safety regime.
The commissioner drew the ire of the industry after the March quake and tsunami in Japan when he claimed the world was staring at a nuclear safety "apocalypse."
On Tuesday, he plans to meet with pressure groups and European Parliament figures seeking backing for that position.
If Oettinger spoke out it was partly because lobby group the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) wants to exclude plane crashes and deliberate attacks from the test criteria.
Opponents fear they will manage to push through testing criteria that while raising test limits for plants' resistance to earthquakes, floods or severe systems failures breakdowns, exclude these kinds of man-made catastrophes.
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