Council Directive 2011/70/EuratomShow full title

Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom

of 19 July 2011

establishing a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Articles 31 and 32 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, drawn up after obtaining the opinion of a group of persons appointed by the Scientific and Technical Committee from among scientific experts in the Member States,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament(2),

Whereas:

(1) Article 2(b) of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (‘Euratom Treaty’) provides for the establishment of uniform safety standards to protect the health of workers and of the general public.

(2) Article 30 of the Euratom Treaty provides for the establishment of basic standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiations.

(3) Article 37 of the Euratom Treaty requires Member States to provide the Commission with general data relating to any plan for the disposal of radioactive waste.

(4) Council Directive 96/29/Euratom(3) establishes basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiation. That Directive has been supplemented by more specific legislation.

(5) As recognised by the Court of Justice of the European Union in its case-law, the provisions of Chapter 3 of the Euratom Treaty, on health and safety, form a coherent whole conferring upon the Commission powers of some considerable scope in order to protect the population and the environment against the risks of nuclear contamination(4).

(6) Council Decision 87/600/Euratom of 14 December 1987 on Community arrangements for the early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency(5) established a framework for notification and provision of information to be used by the Member States in order to protect the general public in case of a radiological emergency. Council Directive 89/618/Euratom of 27 November 1989 on informing the general public about health protection measures to be applied and steps to be taken in the event of a radiological emergency(6) imposed obligations on the Member States to inform the general public in the event of a radiological emergency.

(7) Council Directive 2003/122/Euratom(7) provides for the control of high-activity sealed radioactive sources and orphan sources, including disused sources. In accordance with the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (‘the Joint Convention’) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Code of Conduct on the Safety and Security of Radioactive Sources, and current industrial practices, disused sealed sources can be reused, recycled or disposed of. In many cases, this needs a return of the source or return of the equipment, including the source, to a supplier or a manufacturer, for requalification or processing.

(8) Directive 2006/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the management of waste from extractive industries(8) covers the management of waste from extractive industries which may be radioactive, but excluding such aspects as are specific to radioactivity, which are matters dealt with under the Euratom Treaty.

(9) Council Directive 2006/117/Euratom(9) lays down a European Atomic Energy Community (‘Community’) system of supervision and control of transboundary shipments of radioactive waste and spent fuel. That Directive was supplemented by Commission Recommendation 2008/956/Euratom of 4 December 2008 on criteria for the export of radioactive waste and spent fuel to third countries(10).

(10) Council Directive 2009/71/Euratom of 25 June 2009 establishing a Community framework for the nuclear safety of nuclear installations(11) imposes obligations on the Member States to establish and maintain a national framework for nuclear safety. While that Directive concerns principally the nuclear safety of nuclear installations, it states that it is also important to ensure the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, including at storage and disposal facilities. Therefore, those facilities, addressed both in Directive 2009/71/Euratom and in this Directive, should not be subject to disproportionate or unnecessary obligations, especially as regards reporting.

(11) Directive 2003/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment(12) applies to certain plans and programmes within the scope of Directive 2001/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2001 on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment(13).

(12) Commission Recommendation 2006/851/Euratom of 24 October 2006 on the management of the financial resources for the decommissioning of nuclear installations, spent fuel and radioactive waste(14) focuses on the adequacy of funding, its financial security and its transparency in order to ensure that the funds are only used for the intended purposes.

(13) Under the specific terms of accession of Lithuania, Slovakia and Bulgaria to the European Union, where certain nuclear power plants were subject to early shutdown, the Community has taken part in the raising of financial resources and provides financial support subject to certain conditions to various decommissioning projects, including management of radioactive waste and spent fuel.

(14) The Joint Convention, concluded under the auspices of the IAEA, represents an incentive instrument which aims at achieving and maintaining a high level of safety worldwide in spent fuel and radioactive waste management through the enhancement of national measures and international cooperation.

(15) Some Member States have already participated and intend to participate further in the US-Russian driven programme, called the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, by shipping the spent fuel of research reactors to the United States of America and to the Russian Federation.

(16) In 2006, the IAEA updated the structure of standards and published the Fundamental Safety Principles, which were jointly sponsored by the Community, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency and other international organisations. Applying the Fundamental Safety Principles will facilitate the application of international safety standards and will make for greater consistency between the arrangements of different states.

(17) Following the Council’s invitation to set up a High Level Group at EU level, as recorded in its Conclusions of 8 May 2007 on Nuclear Safety and Safe Management of Spent Nuclear Fuel and Radioactive Waste, the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) was set up by Commission Decision 2007/530/Euratom of 17 July 2007 on establishing the European High Level Group on Nuclear Safety and Waste Management(15) to contribute to the achievement of the Community objectives in the field of spent fuel and radioactive waste management. The conclusions and recommendations of ENSREG were reflected in the Council Resolution of 16 December 2008 on Spent Fuel and Radioactive Waste Management and the Council Conclusions of 10 November 2009 on the report by the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group.

(18) The European Parliament adopted on 10 May 2007 a Resolution ‘Assessing Euratom – 50 Years of European nuclear energy policy’ where it called for harmonised standards for radioactive waste management and invited the Commission to review the relevant drafts of its legislative proposal and submit a new proposal for a directive on radioactive waste management.

(19) While each Member State remains free to define its energy mix, all Member States generate radioactive waste from power generation or in the course of industrial, agricultural, medical and research activities, or through decommissioning of nuclear facilities or in situations of remediation and interventions.

(20) The operation of nuclear reactors generates spent fuel. Each Member State remains free to define its fuel cycle policy. The spent fuel can be regarded either as a valuable resource that may be reprocessed or as radioactive waste that is destined for direct disposal. Whatever option is chosen, the disposal of high-level waste, separated at reprocessing, or of spent fuel regarded as waste should be considered.

(21) Radioactive waste, including spent fuel considered as waste, requires containment and isolation from humans and the living environment over the long term. Its specific nature, namely that it contains radionuclides, requires arrangements to protect human health and the environment against dangers arising from ionising radiation, including disposal in appropriate facilities as the end location point. The storage of radioactive waste, including long-term storage, is an interim solution, but not an alternative to disposal.

(22) A national radioactive waste classification scheme should support those arrangements, taking fully into account the specific types and properties of radioactive waste.

(23) The typical disposal concept for low and intermediate-level waste is near-surface disposal. It is broadly accepted at the technical level that, at this time, deep geological disposal represents the safest and most sustainable option as the end point of the management of high-level waste and spent fuel considered as waste. Member States, while retaining responsibility for their respective policies in respect of the management of their spent fuel and low, intermediate or high-level radioactive waste, should include planning and implementation of disposal options in their national policies. Since the implementation and development of a disposal facility will take place over many decades, many programmes recognise the necessity of remaining flexible and adaptable, e.g. in order to incorporate new knowledge about site conditions or the possible evolution of the disposal system. The activities conducted under the Implementing Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste Technology Platform (IGD-TP) could facilitate access to expertise and technology in this respect. To that end, reversibility and retrievability as operating and design criteria may be used to guide the technical development of a disposal system. However, those criteria should not be a substitute for a well designed disposal facility that has a defensible basis for closure. A compromise is needed as the management of radioactive waste and spent fuel is based on state-of-the-art science and technology.

(24) It should be an ethical obligation of each Member State to avoid any undue burden on future generations in respect of spent fuel and radioactive waste including any radioactive waste expected from decommissioning of existing nuclear installations. Through the implementation of this Directive Member States will have demonstrated that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure that that objective is met.

(25) The ultimate responsibility of Member States for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management is a fundamental principle reaffirmed by the Joint Convention. That principle of national responsibility, as well as the principle of prime responsibility of the licence holder for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management under the supervision of its competent regulatory authority, should be enhanced and the role and independence of the competent regulatory authority should be reinforced by this Directive.

(26) It is understood that the utilisation of radioactive sources by a competent regulatory authority for the purpose of carrying out its regulatory tasks does not affect its independence.

(27) Member States should ensure that adequate funding is available for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.

(28) Member States should establish national programmes to ensure the transposition of political decisions into clear provisions for the timely implementation of all steps of spent fuel and radioactive waste management from generation to disposal. It should be possible for such national programmes to be in the form of a single reference document or a set of documents.

(29) It is understood that national arrangements for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management will be applied through some form of legal, regulatory or organisational instrument, the choice of which rests within the competence of the Member States.

(30) The different steps in spent fuel and radioactive waste management are closely interrelated. Decisions taken in one individual step may affect a subsequent step. Therefore such interdependencies should be taken into account when developing national programmes.

(31) Transparency is important in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. Transparency should be provided by ensuring effective public information and opportunities for all stakeholders concerned, including local authorities and the public, to participate in the decision-making processes in accordance with national and international obligations.

(32) Cooperation between Member States and at an international level could facilitate and accelerate decision-making through access to expertise and technology.

(33) Some Member States consider that the sharing of facilities for spent fuel and radioactive waste management, including disposal facilities, is a potentially beneficial, safe and cost-effective option when based on an agreement between the Member States concerned.

(34) The documentation of the decision-making process as it relates to safety should be commensurate with the levels of risk (graded approach) and should provide a basis for decisions related to the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. This should enable the identification of areas of uncertainty on which attention needs to be focused in an assessment of safety. Safety decisions should be based on the findings of an assessment of safety and information on the robustness and reliability of that assessment and the assumptions made therein. The decision-making process should therefore be based on a collection of arguments and evidence that seek to demonstrate that the required standard of safety is achieved for a facility or activity related to the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. In the particular case of a disposal facility, the documentation should improve understanding of those aspects influencing the safety of the disposal system, including natural (geological) and engineered barriers, and the expected development of the disposal system over time.

(35) A Member State which has no spent fuel, no immediate prospect of having spent fuel and no present or planned activities related to spent fuel, would be under a disproportionate and unnecessary obligation if it had to transpose and implement the provisions of this Directive with regard to spent fuel. Therefore, such Member States should be exempted, for as long as they have not taken a decision to develop any activity related to nuclear fuel, from the obligation to transpose and implement the provisions related to spent fuel of this Directive.

(36) A Treaty between the government of the Republic of Slovenia and the government of the Republic of Croatia on the regulation of the status and other legal relations regarding investment, exploitation and decommissioning of the Krško nuclear power plant governs the co-ownership of a nuclear power plant. That Treaty provides for shared responsibility for the management and disposal of radioactive waste and spent fuel. Therefore an exemption to certain provisions of this Directive should be laid down in order not to hinder the full implementation of that bilateral Treaty.

(37) While recognising that radiological and non-radiological hazards associated with spent fuel and radioactive waste should be taken into account in the national framework, this Directive does not cover non-radiological hazards, which fall under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

(38) Maintenance and further development of competences and skills in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, as an essential element to ensure high levels of safety, should be based on learning through operational experience.

(39) Scientific research and technological development supported by technical cooperation between actors may open horizons to improve the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, as well as contribute to reducing the risk of the radiotoxicity of high-level waste.

(40) Peer review could serve as an excellent means of building confidence and trust in the management of radioactive waste and spent fuel in the European Union, with the aim of developing and exchanging experience and ensuring high standards,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

(1)

Opinion of 4 May 2011 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(2)

Opinion of 23 June 2011 (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(3)

OJ L 159, 29.6.1996, p. 1.

(4)

C-187/87 (1988 ECR p.5013) and C-29/99 (2002 ECR p. I-11221).

(5)

OJ L 371, 30.12.1987, p. 76.

(6)

OJ L 357, 7.12.1989, p. 31.

(7)

OJ L 346, 31.12.2003, p. 57.

(8)

OJ L 102, 11.4.2006, p. 15.

(9)

OJ L 337, 5.12.2006, p. 21.

(10)

OJ L 338, 17.12.2008, p. 69.

(11)

OJ L 172, 2.7.2009, p. 18.

(12)

OJ L 156, 25.6.2003, p. 17.

(13)

OJ L 197, 21.7.2001, p. 30.

(14)

OJ L 330, 28.11.2006, p. 31.

(15)

OJ L 195, 17.7.2007, p. 44.