There are no two stories the same on today’s front pages. Trouw points out that the government has put all its nuclear eggs in one ministerial basket. A British study into fluctuating teenage IQs rocks the Dutch system of streaming pupils at a young age. A Heineken kidnapper tries to get a last minute injunction against a film based on the story. Schiphol hails its billionth passenger, and filling stations hope to fill their shelves with bottles of beer in the future.

Minister ignores nuclear energy safety regulations
Trouw accuses Economic Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen of ignoring nuclear energy regulations. Since the current government came to power, supervision of the Netherlands’ nuclear installations has been placed under the responsibility of the same ministry that runs the plants.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) recommends setting up an independent organisation to monitor safety at nuclear installations.

The paper speaks to a former coordinator of the crisis team which used to fall under the Environment Ministry, who calls the government's decision “very unwise”. A professor of nuclear energy calls the situation “disastrous for safety”.

The paper writes that it is a political choice to put the department which approves nuclear licences under the same roof as the technicians of the Department of Nuclear Safety.

The government has stated it is in favour of nuclear energy and wants to make decision-making quicker and more efficient. But in doing so, the Dutch are following the Japanese example and are creating a false sense of security.

Other European countries like Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom keep the different functions separate. But the IAEA can only warn governments about dangerous situations – it cannot actually force them to take action.

Technicians at Fukushima were warned there could be a six-metre tsunami every 30 years, but all the same they only built a wall to stop a 5.7-metre-high wall of water. “They did not want to suggest that nuclear energy is dangerous.”

The Netherlands is not likely to be hit by a tsunami, but much of the country does lie below sea level, Trouw points out. The ministry does not see any problem. It says the Department of Nuclear Safety is an independent body. In 2012, the IAEA is due to inspect Dutch nuclear plants. The ministry says it will take a good look at any recommendations the organisation makes.

Teenage IQs fluctuate
British research has revealed that the IQ of teenagers is unstable. The news has hit the front page of de Volkskrant, not least because school children in the Netherlands are selected for different academic levels at the age of 12 after taking an exam (the CITO test) in the final year of primary school.

Up to now, it was thought that a person’s IQ remained more or less the same. In the study, 33 teenagers between 12 and 16 were given an IQ test. Four years later they were tested again. One in five of the teenagers scored over ten points higher or lower in the second test. In one participant, the IQ score for verbal intelligence was 23 points higher than four years earlier, another scored 20 points less.

Brain scans confirmed that the brains of those with higher IQ-scores had developed a lot, while those with lower scores had not developed much. The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal Nature.

The author of the study, Cathy Price says: “We should be careful not to write off young children who perform poorly too quickly.” She compares it to an athletic 14-year-old who doesn’t train when he or she is 18 to a non-athletic child who does. But before we all start brain training our children, she warns parents not to develop unreal expectations. Nevertheless, she thinks more attention should be paid to individual differences rather than a single test result.

Kidnapper tries to ban Heineken film
The Netherlands’ most notorious criminal, who kidnapped brewery magnate Freddy Heineken, Willem Holleeder, is trying to get an injunction against the release of a film about that kidnapping. The case is being heard in court today. Holleeder fears the film will damage his reputation. Nrc.next asks whether The Heineken Kidnapping, which is due to hit cinema screens next week, is really likely to be banned.

Holleeder complains that the script is not 100 percent true, while the filmmakers claim the right to a bit of artistic freedom. For instance, Holleeder is not even named in the film - his character has been rolled into one with another gangster - although it is clear which character he is meant to be.

Holleeder has recently been named, in a separate court case, as the man behind a number of gangland killings, but the film’s director Maarten Treurniet says he has not received any threats and does not intend to let himself be swayed by Holleeder’s reputation. When asked on a TV talk show why Holleeder is the only character in the film who is not named, Treurniet explained: “If you give someone fantasy-characteristics, then you cannot give him the same name.”

De Telegraaf reports that Holleeder, who spent 11 years in prison for the Heineken kidnapping, has not been given permission to attend this morning’s hearing at the high-security bunker court in Amsterdam. The Ministry of Justice says the risks are too high. He is currently serving a nine-year sentence for extortion. Just imagine if he did escape, there would be plenty of material for another film.

Schiphol celebrates billionth passenger
The billionth passenger landed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Wednesday. Inge Serné had a surprise when her flight landed an hour early yesterday. She was showered with gifts and flowers after she was selected to be Ms Billion. A graph in AD shows how the number of passengers has taken off since the 1970s, with the only hiccups being the 1970s oil crisis, 9/11 and the economic crisis of 2008.

Ms Serné was approached at New York airport and asked whether she objected to being given 1,000 euros to spend at Schiphol, a travel cheque for her next trip, a free parking space at the airport and 1,000 euros for a charity of her choice. The fact that the person chosen to be the billionth passenger came from New York was not by chance. KLM was the first European airline to fly to New York in 1946.

The airport says that almost 50 million passengers – a record - will travel through Schiphol this year in spite of the ongoing economic crisis. Schiphol has grown phenomenally in the past decade, as half of the billion passengers passed through the airport in the last 11 years. The 500 millionth passenger was recorded in 2000 and the billionth was actually a half year earlier than expected.

But it wasn’t all smiles. KLM chief Peter Hartman took the opportunity to complain about passengers who claim for delays far too easily. But he has nothing to fear from Ms Billion, with a free flight in her pocket she won’t be complaining any time soon.

More on this story

Filling stations want to fill up with alcohol
Garage owners have angered politicians, traffic safety organisations and even breweries and alcohol vendors, De Telegraaf reports, by saying they want to put alcohol back on the shelves at service stations.

The health minister has warned that inspectors will be making sure the current ban on selling alcohol at filling stations is enforced. Anyone flaunting the ban could face a fine of up to 3,600 euros.

Garage owners say they are at a disadvantage because roadside restaurants are allowed to serve alcohol while they cannot sell drink to drivers. Over the border in Belgium and Germany there is no ban on selling alcohol at service stations. Five filling stations say they are going to put bottles of beer back on the shelves to force a test case. AD writes that the problem is there is no proof that selling alcohol at service stations leads to more drink driving.