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A statement by Ad Louter of DELTA on receipt of the Borssele2NEE/WISE petition

Middelburg, 16-3-2011

I would like to start by saying that I do fully understand your concerns about the situation in Japan, and that all of us here share your sympathy for the victims of the terrible earthquake and tsunami. Our staff are closely tracking developments, and of course that includes the situation in and around the nuclear power station in Fukushima.

We can see that everything possible is being done to bring the emergency under control. Over the coming hours and days we will discover whether these efforts have been successful.

In relation to Borssele, and following consultations with experts from the EPZ and the Technical University in Delft, we can report that the existing and planned new nuclear power stations have and will have sufficient back-up systems so that a situation of the kind that has arisen in Japan can not occur at Borssele. Additionally, the power stations in question are of quite different types: the Borssele station is a pressurised water reactor, while the Japanese station is a boiling water reactor.  We are therefore confident about the ability of Borssele to successfully come through any additional investigation of the safety of the plant.  

DELTA will of course be incorporating any relevant findings from investigations of the events in Japan into the application for the permit for the new power station, and any lessons learned from the situation in Japan will be carefully studied. Together with our partner EDF we are currently working towards obtaining the permit, and we expect to submit the finalised application to the Dutch authorities in the summer of 2012.

Here at DELTA we are convinced that nuclear energy will continue to be an important component of any future CO2-neutral energy economy.

That is where I would like to leave things for the moment. Thank you for your attention.

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