You're reading: Austria calls for tough nuke power plant tests

VIENNA (AP) — Austria's environment minister says safety tests for European nuclear power plants must be mandatory and take into account the possibility of plane crashes or terror attacks.

EU nations agreed last month to submit their plants to so-called stress tests and promised to heed the lessons from the tsunami-related accident at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi complex that has raised questions about atomic energy.

Nikolaus Berlakovich said Monday that draft criteria for the tests don’t go far enough and that they "must incorporate human influences such as plane crashes or terror attacks."

He added it should be clear that all countries and all nuclear power plants must participate in the testing process.

Austria is an ardent opponent of nuclear power and has no operating plants of its own.