11 May (NucNet): The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (Ensreg) has formed a task force that will formulate “concrete tasks” based on proposals put forward following stress tests on nuclear plants in Europe.
The task force has been asked to elaborate on proposals put forward in a peer review report on the stress tests that was published last month. It will also draw up a list of actions that need to be taken, Ensreg said.
Ensreg chairman Andrej Stritar told the second public meeting on post Fukushima-Daiichi stress tests in Brussels this week that improvements will range from strengthening the independence of national regulators to the harmonisation of accident mitigation practices, and offsite emergency preparedness and response.
The task force will be led by Philippe Jamet, commissioner at the French nuclear safety authority (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire; ASN) and Petr Krs, vice-president for management and technical support of the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety (SÚJB). Ensreg countries are being asked to suggest further members, Mr Stritar told NucNet.
Mr Stritar said the task force aims to have its draft report ready for discussion at the next Ensreg meeting on 3 July 2012, when further decisions will be made.
The stress tests were carried out through different steps including an assessment by operators and an independent review of those assessments by national regulators.
Country peer reviews were carried out from March to April 2011, with each country visited by a team of eight peer reviewers for several days.
The 15 European Union countries with nuclear power plants as well as Switzerland and Ukraine performed the stress tests and were subjected to the peer review.
The final peer review report is online:
www.ensreg.eu/sites/default/files/EU%20Stress%20Test%20Peer%20Review%20Final%20Report.pdf
