Krško nuclear scare: Alarm bells ringing, information still lacking
Speaking on yesterday's incident at the Krško nuclear plant in Slovenia und the EU-wide alarm that followed, Monica Frassoni, Co-President and Rebecca Harms, Vice-President of the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament, said:
"After yesterday's EU-wide nuclear alarm issued due to an incident at the Krško plant in Slovenia, many questions remain unanswered. The EU Commission was quick to hail the alarm as proof of a new policy of transparency, but why then was the alarm not issued after the serious incidents in the Försmark plant in Sweden or the Brunsbüttel plant in Germany? For a clearer picture it would be important to know how often ECURIE (1) has activated this warning system in the past.
We are still being kept in the dark about the exact content of the announcement from Slovenia that led to the warning system being activated. What kind of technical problem occurred in the primary cooling system?
The Commission must also explain why an increase in radiation levels was recorded on 3 June, the night before the alarm was sounded. Up to now we have only information on radiation measurements of the air, not of sewage water.
We also want to know whether the cooling system in the power plant is now working adequately. Even if a reactor is shut down, for days afterwards there is an enormous emission of heat that must be cooled to avoid disaster.
The considerable media attention of the nuclear alarm across Europe has highlighted public awareness for the major risks posed by nuclear energy. All parties are clearly more afraid than they admit, and they are all aware that a serious nuclear accident can occur at any time."
Notes:
1) ECURIE = European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange
