THE BRITISH authorities have decided to exclude the Sellafield

THE BRITISH authorities have decided to exclude the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria from an imminent round of stress tests on European nuclear installations.


The move comes despite indications to the Norwegian Minister for Environment Erik Solheim and the Irish Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan from British energy secretary Chris Huhne that the stress tests would include Sellafield.

We ask the Norwegian Minister for Environment Erik Solheim to follow this up as soon as possible.

Voluntary tests on Europe’s 143 nuclear reactors follow the Fukushima nuclear emergency in Japan, which raised questions as to whether previous safety audits were thorough enough.

The tests, which begin next month, will examine the resilience of nuclear installations to earthquakes, tsunamis, air crashes and human error. A group will also be set up to deal with the risk of any terrorist attack on a nuclear plant.

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