In a brief issued yesterday on its forthcoming report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that ageing nuclear power plants present a serious risk.
Many of the oldest plants still in operation do not meet present safety requirements, according to the Agency. Almost two-thirds of the world’s nuclear plants are more than twenty years old, a third are over thirty years old, and five per cent have been in operation for more than forty years. According to the IAEA many plants in the latter two categories have already exceeded the working period for which they were designed.
The full report will be released by the summer.
HT
