THE safety of nuclear plants could be jeopardised by cutbacks in research
funding in Europe and America, warns the OECD鈥檚 Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). A
new report by the agency鈥檚 safety committee criticises governments for
endangering vital research into the prevention of nuclear accidents.
The report, which represents the collective opinion of many of the world鈥檚
leading nuclear safety experts, says that dwindling budgets and stagnant nuclear
programmes 鈥渕ay lead to the untimely shutdown of large research facilities and
the breaking up of experienced research and analytical teams鈥�.
Although government spending on nuclear safety research is being maintained
in France, Japan and Korea, the head of the NEA鈥檚 nuclear safety division,
Tianna Frescura, says it is being reduced in most of the other 11 OECD countries
with nuclear programmes, including Britain, Germany and the US.
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Where countries have no plans to build new nuclear stations, Frescura accepts
that some cutbacks may be justified. But he is worried that some governments are
too enthusiastic in their search for savings. He points, for example, to the
closure in Germany of facilities designed to test the behaviour of reactor
materials during accidents in which cooling systems have failed.
Michael Hayns, a former safety specialist with the UK Atomic Energy
Authority, now at Aston University in Birmingham, is editing a second report for
the NEA which seeks to identify important research centres that should be saved
by international cooperation. He is particularly concerned about the future of
three centres: a world-class fracture mechanics rig at Risley in England, set up
to test the reliability of welds in reactors; a new materials test reactor at
Garching near Munich in Germany; and a reactor ergonomics research centre at
Holden in Norway.
With fewer new reactors being built, the world鈥檚 nuclear plants are
collectively getting older. Hayns argues that without the facilities and
expertise to test ageing materials, reactor operators may not be able to
convince the regulatory authorities that elderly reactors should be kept in
operation. 鈥淚n ten years鈥� time there could be problems that we don鈥檛 know
about,鈥� he says.
鈥淲e are aware of the NEA鈥檚 thinking,鈥� says a spokesman for the UK Health and
Safety Executive, which has seen its budget for nuclear safety research decrease
by almost 20 per cent in real terms in the past five years. 鈥淲e are monitoring
possible shortfalls in essential research capabilities.鈥�