EU mulls nuclear-free future-world, tests on reactors
Baku, March 16 (AZERTAC).Europe is considering "stress testing" its nuclear power stations to check they can cope with crises, while its energy chief on Tuesday even raised the prospect of a nuclear-free future.
The developments mark a dramatic turnaround for a continent that had been considering a partial nuclear revival until this week, when Japan`s nuclear accident highlighted how quickly events can run out of control -- and not only after an earthquake.
"We must also raise the question -- if we in Europe, in the foreseeable future, can secure our energy needs without nuclear energy," EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger told Germany`s ARD television.
The nuclear revival was prompted by Europe`s rush to low-carbon energy to guard against climate change, but public mistrust runs high following the 1986 Chernobyl accident.
Nowhere is the debate more volatile than in Germany, where the government went as far as announcing on Tuesday the suspension of operations at all seven of its pre-1980 nuclear plants.
And Austria, one of the Europe Union`s biggest opponents of nuclear power, received some support to its call for "stress tests" to reassure citizens worried by the crisis in Japan. It was not immediately clear, however, what those tests on power stations would involve.
Supporters of nuclear power warned against knee-jerk reactions, pointing out that Europe is much less geologically active than Japan.
But critics countered that other threats, such as terrorism, could cut a reactor`s power supply -- with similar consequences.
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