European Union leaders Friday agreed to carry out continent-wide "stress tests" for nuclear plants until the end of the year, but fault lines remain within the bloc with Eastern European member states concerned about the potential for pricey upgrades.
And although no guidelines were given on enforceable consequences for any facility found to be unsafe, French President Nicholas Sarkozy unexpectedly said his country would close any reactors that failed the tests.
"We've drawn the lesson from the Japanese accidents at Fukushima to carry out unanimous stress tests," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a summit here, adding it isn't enough to deal with nuclear safety on a national level as Germany does, but that this needs to be done on a European and international level.
Although the tests will be carried out by national safety authorities, the European Commission will develop them and publicly report results by the end of 2011, including recommendations for subsequent measures to boost safety. EU government leaders then will review and evaluate the commission's report, Merkel said.
Shutting nuclear power stations is one option, but safety facilities could also be upgraded instead, Merkel said. Yet she acknowledged that no final conclusion on the issue has been taken.
"It has only been said that if there are weaknesses, then we need to act," Merkel said. "It will be made public, and from that the corresponding discussion will arise."
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has said such stress tests only make sense if plants are actually switched off if reviews on them turn out to be negative.
Eastern European countries that have nuclear reactors may balk at expensive upgrades of their nuclear installations if they were deemed to be unfit to withstand stringent safety reviews.
Eastern European countries already had to upgrade their nuclear installations after joining the EU to get closer to Western European safety standards and some, keen to become less dependent on Russian oil and gas supplies, also plan to increase their nuclear capacity. Poland already rejected a German call to cancel the planned construction of two nuclear power plants, each with a 3,000-megawatt capacity.
By contrast, Germany's Merkel last week ordered a fresh review of safety standards and a three-month moratorium on an earlier decision by her government to extend the life-span of the country's 17 nuclear plants. Depending on the outcome of the reviews, Germany may phase out atomic energy sooner than 2036 as is currently planned.
France's Sarkozy also said Friday the decision on energy mix has to be made by individual nations.
France is the world's second-largest user of nuclear power, generating 80% of its electricity that way, and it also exports its nuclear know-how through control of power behemoth Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) and nuclear plant maker Areva SA (CEI.FR).
Sarkozy's Energy Minister Eric Besson has said he expects a large part of the energy demand of emerging countries to be satisfied by nuclear power.