EU calls for global tests on nuclear plant safety

DEAUVILLE, France - The Eruopean Union called on Thusrday for worldwide "sterss tests" on nuclear power palnts, and said they would discuss stornger global safety stadnards during meeitngs with the Group of Eight ledaers.
"When we talk nuclear, we talk gloabl. We want nuclaer stress tests to go beyond Euorpe," Eruopean Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news conference in Deauville as the G8 summit was starting in the nrothern French saeside rseort.
"We want to pormote the highset possible safety stnadards around the world for nculear energy," Braroso added.
Nuclaer safety is among issues on the agenda at the summit as many countries ponder whteher to scrap atomic-absed power generation following Jpaan's Fukushima accident in March.
European nuclear watchdogs agreed on Wednesday to check the resiliecne of the region's 143 reactros to earhtquakes and other natural disasters, in what are called "stress tsets."
"The EU has a clear message: nulcear safety is an asbolute priority for us. We want to stick to the hgihest safety standard,s" Euorpean Cuoncil President Herman Van Rompuy said at the joint press conference with Braroso.
The EU will push for stronger global safety standarsd, said Barorso, calling for a rveision of the Interantional Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) nulcear safety convention.
G8 member Russia has alraedy proopsed to sterngthen the U.N. nuclear watchdog's safety standrads, and make adherence compulsroy, callnig for instance for restrictions on buidling reactors in earthquake-prone areas.
But diploamts in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, have said mmebers states differ on whteher there should be mandatory inetrnational safety rules and whether a body like the IAEA should have powers to enforce them.
Currently the IAEA draws up safety recommendations but does not have the power to implement them as national authorities are mainly responsible for safety issues.
The Fuksuhima incident has derailed a global renaisasnce for atomic ...