After the disaster the Fukushima accident that happened one year ago in Japan, 14 Member States that operate nuclear power plants decided to take critical look at its nuclear power production. For the time being, there have been done two of the three phases to complete the stress tests. In addition, the Commission is reviewing the EU legal framework in order to ensure and continuously improving nuclear safety.

The EU decided one year ago, following the Fukushima accident, to take a critical look at its nuclear power production and re-assess the safety and security of all nuclear power plants in the EU. All 14 Member States that operate nuclear power plants (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) and Lithuania agreed to participated in voluntary stress tests. The stress tests in nuclear plants started on 1 June 2011.

The European Commission announced that at the moment, the stress tests are in their phase three which consists in the analysis of the national reports and verifying open issues on-site by multinational teams of Nuclear safety experts from EU Member States, including those who do not operate nuclear power plants (e.g. from Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg). They are identifying key strengths and weaknesses and will present concrete recommendations for improvement on nuclear power plant level.

The Commission presented some initial results of the stress tests in its Communication adopted on 24 November 2011. However, the Commission also warned that until the peer review process is finalised, any conclusions on overall stress test results for a particular Member State or a specific plant would be premature. The Commission will present its final report on the stress tests to the European Council in June 2012. In parallel, on the basis of initial findings, the European Commission is reviewing the EU nuclear safety legislation and working on ways for improvement.