Austria wants European nuclear "stress test"

[suffragette]

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE72C0JQ20110313


FRANKFURT, March 13 (Reuters) - Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said on Sunday he would call for a pan-European "stress test" to see if nuclear power stations were earthquake proof, following Japan's massive quake and tsunami.

Berlakovich told Austrian radio he will ask at a European Union environment ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, "whether they are earthquake proof, and how they perform in terms of containment and cooling."

Although the issue of nuclear power was not on the agenda for the meeting, he would put forward the idea of the "stress test" he told the radio programme Mittagsjournal.

The radiation leak from a damaged nuclear reactor north of Tokyo should prompt a rethink in the whole of Europe about whether or not to get out of nuclear energy, Berlakovich said.

For a link to the radio interview click: oe1.orf.at/artikel/271972 (Reporting by Edward Taylor in Frankfurt and Fredrik Dahl in Vienna; Editing by Matthew Jones)

[jannyk]

1. Japan's Plants Are/Were Built as 'Earthquake Proof'

Trouble with that is Mother Nature can always surpass both our imagination and engineering capability.

[suffragette]

2. Yep, reminds me of being "unsinkable"

[Spider Jerusalem]

3. Because of course Europe is a notable zone of seismic activity

The strongest earthquakes ever recorded in the UK, France and Germany are at about 6.5 magnitude; Southern Europe is more geologically active and has had earthquakes of 8.0-9.0 (8.0 in Croatia in 1880, c. 9.0 in Lisbon in 1755), but quakes of such magnitude are extremely rare, being once-a-century events, if that. There is not much to be learnt from the experience of Japan for most of Europe.

[suffragette]

4. Still, they do have earthquakes

and stress tests seem to be a common sense precaution.

The EU seems to take earthquake safety, loss and damage seriously:
http://ec.europa.eu/research/leaflets/disasters/en/earthqu.html