Nuclear security

Incidents and accidents in nuclear power plants - when are they really dangerous?

All countries that use nuclear power (with the exception of North Korea) have committed themselves to report nuclear incidents and accidents to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Those reports are principally public - the idea is that experts and media can freely inform themselves and openly discuss the gravity and significance of the events.

But there are doubts that this information flows as intended - even in western democracies. In the French power plant Fassene (in German: "Fessenheim"), there was an incident on April 9, 2014 in which water damaged part of the reactor protection system. The reactor was shut down and the case reported to the IAEA as a level 1 incident.