euro|topics - Accident at a Slovenian nuclear power plant

04/07/2009

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Main focus of Friday, June 6, 2008

Accident at a Slovenian nuclear power plant

Confusion surrounding an alleged accident in a nuclear power plant in the Slovenian town of Krško has reignited the discussion about the safety of nuclear energy in Europe. But critics are also dissatisfied with the EU Commission's information policy and the European nuclear alarm system "Ecurie".

Der Tagesspiegel - Germany

The newspaper comments that the confusion surrounding the alleged accident at the Krško Nuclear Power Plant highlights the weaknesses of the European warning system and an insufficient information policy: "Does anyone know what actually happened on Wednesday at the power plant in Krško? Did anything happen? Did nothing happen? Should we believe that someone 'simply' mistook one document for another and thus set off the European alarm? Even if this turns out to be a minor incident, one thing is clear: it was a nuclear worst case information scenario, demonstrating that the European alarm system does not work. Otherwise there could hardly have been so much confusion. ... Nevertheless, Slovenia did issue a report. The same cannot be said of all of us when a problem arises. This must be recognised. But please tell me, what will happen when something really serious happens? Who will be able to quickly assess the situation? What will be done? This debacle makes one fear the worst." (06/06/2008)

Delo - Slovenia

The daily expresses concern about the damage to Slovenia's reputation following the incident at the Krško nuclear power plant: "Although the false report, or rather misunderstanding, was corrected within a matter of minutes, the whole affair threw a bad light on Slovenia's credibility, particularly as far as our northern neighbours are concerned, whose opinion of us was not good to start with. ... The mistake and the carelessness ... became catchwords for the political and media coverage, which carried the implications: what is really going on at the nuclear power plant? What are the Slovenians hiding? And then there's the fact that it is very unusual, to say the least, that such an important matter as the official reporting of an incident at a nuclear plant depends on a word being crossed out on a form to draw the distinction between a genuine accident and a test-run." (06/06/2008)

Postimees - Estonia

According to the Estonian daily the incident at the Krško nuclear power plant in Slovenia highlights once more the dilemma the EU faces: "Nuclear energy is not particularly popular with EU citizens, but at the same time the energy sector depends on it to a large extent. If less electricity is produced through nuclear power because incidents like that in Slovenia bring back memories of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, more gas must be imported, and most of that comes from Russia. Some people point to the dangers of nuclear energy, while others emphasise the danger of dependence on Russia. Our politicians need to find answers to how we can get along without nuclear energy and at the same time reduce Europe's energy dependence - and the solution better be an environmentally friendly one, too, please." (06/06/2008)