Ministers from 33 countries reached broad agreement in Paris Tuesday on the need for global nuclear stress tests, according to dpa. French Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is chairing a two-day meeting on nuclear safety at the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. Ministers from OECD member countries and Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations, "largely agreed that all countries with nuclear facilities should carry out safety audits or "stress tests," Kosciusko-Morizet's office said. Such stress tests, which the European Union has already ordered on its 143 nuclear plants, would test the capacity of nuclear reactors to withstand major incidents like the earthquake and tsunami that rocked the Fukushima plant in March. The ministers also agreed on the need to "reinforce the global role and missions" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the safety field. Currently the IAEA reviews its member countries' nuclear safety only when it is invited to do so, and its recommendations are not binding. Kosciusko-Morizet also called on the UN nuclear watchdog to review its safety standards - particularly on the construction and operation of nuclear plants in seismic zones - and "ensure their proper application." "We cannot continue to think the way we did before Fukushima," she said. Among the other topics under discussion was the need to better coordinate and harmonize countries' responses to nuclear crises. The recommendations resulting from the meeting will be discussed at a meeting of the IAEA in Vienna from June 20 to 24.
