A Community approach to nuclear safety
6 Nov 2002
Today, the European Commission proposed an 'unprecedented package' of measures that should lead to a uniform approach to nuclear safety and security of supply throughout all states in the EU.
The proposals cover the safety of nuclear installations during operation and decommissioning and the management of radioactive waste.
On the safety side, the Commission adopted a proposal to introduce common safety standards and monitoring mechanisms to guarantee that common methods will be applied throughout the Union. Each Member State will be required to have a fully independent safety authority, and the Community will monitor how the safety authorities perform their task.
For the decommissioning of nuclear installations in particular, the proposal defines Community rules for ensuring that sufficient funds will be available to carry out decommissioning operations under conditions that will protect the general public and the environment from ionising radiation.
This proposal also gives priority to geological burial of waste as the safest method of disposal known at present. Member States will have to adopt, according to a pre-set timetable, national programmes for the disposal of radioactive wastes including deep burial of highly radioactive wastes. They will have to decide on burial sites (whether national or shared by several Member States) for highly radioactive wastes by 2008 at the latest and to have the sites operational at the latest by 2018. For low-activity, short-life waste, disposal arrangements must be ready at the latest by 2013.
The European Commission is also putting to the European Council a draft decision that will authorise the Commission to negotiate an agreement between Euratom and the Russian Federation on trade in nuclear materials.
