The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy adopted the report by Romana Jordan CIZELJ (EPP, SI) on the proposal for a Council directive on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
The main amendments are as follows:
Objective: Members want to specify that the Directive also relates to the protection of the natural environment and that it ensures the provision of necessary public information and participation in relation to spent fuel and radioactive waste management. The directive defines the minimum standards for the Member States, but they must be free to impose stricter standards in relation to the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
Scope: the directive applies to all stages of spent fuel management when the spent fuel results from the operation of civilian nuclear reactors or is managed within civilian activities on EU territory, including the spent fuel originating from military defence programmes if and when such spent fuel is permanently transferred to and managed in the context of exclusively civilian activities.
Disposal: this is defined as the emplacement of spent fuel or radioactive waste in a potentially definitive manner in an authorised facility with due regard for the reversibility principle. According to Members, any disposal should ensure the removal of waste package or the access in deep geological repository. Reversibility principle forms part of the social acceptability for such repository and is linked to the long-term monitoring of the site and its memory keeping.
Furthermore, spent fuel must be defined as waste, unless it is clear that it can be reprocessed in the near term without further impact on the environment.
General principles: the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste should remain, as a last resort, the responsibility of the Member States on whose territory they were produced. National policies on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste should be implemented through a well-founded and documented stepwise decision-making process having regard to long-term safety. According to Members, national policies should be based on the following principles:
Agreement with a third country: in the event of an agreement with a third country on the storage of radioactive waste, the Member State that is party to the agreement must ensure that the storage conditions meet the requirements of the directive. In the case of export to a third country, the exporting Member State shall take reasonable measures to make sure that the other country has a radioactive waste management programme with safety objectives equivalent to those prescribed by the Directive.
Establishment of regional disposal facilities: on a voluntary basis, Member States may decide to establish a joint or regional disposal facility in cooperation with other Member States or a third country in order to utilise the favourable geological or technical advantages of a particular site and to share the financial burden of the joint project.
Before launching such a project through an intergovernmental agreement, the Member States concerned shall ensure that the initiative fulfils a number of requirements including public acceptance and support in all the Member States concerned throughout all phases of the project development and the lifetime of the disposal.
National framework for the management of used fuels and radioactive waste: this needs to include, among other things:
Safety evaluation: the competent regulatory authority shall have the powers and resources to regularly carry out nuclear safety assessments, investigations and controls, and where necessary to take enforcement action in facilities, even during the decommissioning process. The health and safety of workers, including any sub-contractors, as well as staff levels and training, shall form part of those assessments.
Safety case: Member States shall ensure that a safety case and a supporting safety assessment are prepared as part of the application for a licence to carry on a radioactive waste management activity or to operate a disposal facility located on EU territory. The safety case was originally the purpose of Article 8, the provisions of which are now dispersed in the relevant articles.
Licence-holders: licence-holders are required to inform cross-border regional and local authorities at the earliest possible date of their plans to establish a waste management facility, if the distance of such a facility from the national border is such that it is likely to have cross-border effects during the building or operation of the facility or after its abandonment, or in the event of an accident or incident related to the facility.
Recording and tracking, especially with regard to the health and safety of workers: Members want to oblige Member States to establish a recording and tracking system in the field of used fuels and radioactive waste. Information regarding workers who have been exposed in the course of their working life must be kept either by the licence-holder or by a state body, so as to enable work-related diseases to be followed up in the long term.
Sanctions: sanctions that are effective, dissuasive and proportionate in relation to the seriousness of the offence, are applicable in the event of infringement of the obligations arising from this Directive.
Expertise and qualifications: Members consider that particular attention needs to be paid to parties indirectly involved on-site and shall ensure that they are offered up-to-date appropriate education and training before the operations involving radioactive waste and spent fuel are carried out. Education and training for workers shall comply with internationally recognised standards, so as to strengthen overall responsibility for health and safety in the nuclear industry.
Financial resources: in Members’ view, the proposal should guarantee that sufficient financial resources are available when needed to cover all necessary expenses related to decommissioning and the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, thereby fully respecting the responsibility of radioactive waste producers according to the ‘polluter-pays’ principle and avoiding any recourse to State aid.
The amendments adopted by Members lay down more restrictive obligations on Members States, in accordance with their national procedures: i) an assessment of the costs related to the waste management; ii) reserves to be established to cover future decommissioning or waste management activities and the necessary assets to cover these reserves; iii) appropriate monitoring of the adequacy of the reserves and the management of the assets; iv) the costs of disposal shall be transparently set out and published by the Member States and reassessed each year; v) a national body capable of providing an expert judgment on the management of funds and decommissioning costs; vi) regular communications from Member States to the Commission.
Transparency and public participation: Member States shall: i) ensure that information is made available to the public concerning the financial resources for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste; ii) all decisions concerning sites for, and the management of, spent fuel and radioactive waste close to neighbouring countries involve the public and the institutions of the countries concerned.
Members also want Member States to ensure that members of the public are given early opportunities to participate effectively in the preparation or review of the national programmes for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste needing to be drawn up, and that they have access to them once they have been drawn up. The programmes shall be placed on a publicly available website. Member States shall inform cross-border regional and local authorities of their national programmes at the earliest possible date, if the implementation thereof is likely to have cross-border effects.
Review: the Commission shall, no later than two years after peer reviews by Member States have taken place as provided for in the directive, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council which focuses on a reassessment of the concept of the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.