European Commission publishes draft nuclear safety law

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission on Thursday, June 13 published a draft nuclear safety law that includes mandatory EU-wide reviews every six years in response to lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Reuters reported.

In the aftermath of the Japanese nuclear tragedy, the European Union carried out a series of stress tests to examine the resilience of nuclear power stations and Thursday's proposals build on conclusions drawn from the tests.

In the proposals the Commission wants member states to carry out reviews on pre-agreed topics every six years and can send inspectors to specific countries if it feels reviews are delayed or not implemented properly.

"There are 132 nuclear reactors in operation in Europe today. Our task at the Commission is to make sure that safety is given the utmost priority in every single one of them," Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said in a statement.