WIREDGOV

The Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) yesterday took note of the final report of the Ad Hoc Group on Nuclear Security (AHGNS) (10616/12).

The disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan in March 2011 put the issue of nuclear safety and security at the top of the EU's agenda and triggered a series of meetings and events. The European Council on 24-25 March (10/1/11, paragraph 31) concluded that the safety of all EU nuclear plants should be reviewed, on the basis of comprehensive and transparent risk and safety assessments.

The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) and the Commission reached agreement in May 2011 on the scope and modalities of these assessments, agreeing that a two-track process should be in place to cover safety and security. According to this agreement, the safety assessment of the nuclear plants started on 1 June and covers extraordinary triggering events like earthquakes and flooding and the consequences of any other initiating events potentially leading to a loss of safety functions requiring severe accident management and includes human and organisational factors. The AHGNS was created in July 2011 on the basis of a Coreper decision to deal with the security of nuclear power plants in the EU in relation to theft, sabotage, unauthorised access, unauthorised movement of nuclear material or other malicious acts.

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