Friends of the Earth (FoE) has said that the Austrian protests against the startup of the Czech Temelin nuclear plant highlighted an urgent need for pan-European safety standards.
“After 10 years of discussion with East European countries, we still haven’t solved the problem about how much safety is necessary and how much safety is required for EU accession,” said FoE campaigner Patricia Lorenz. FoE says that the Temelin plant is unsafe, and that the EU had no power to inspect it. Lorenz went on to say that Europe needs minimum safety standards for nuclear plants to ensure former Soviet bloc countries do not have lower standards than their western neighbours.
