CONTROL OF SHIPMENTS OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE
AND FUEL (5058/06)
Letter from Ian Pearson MP, Minister of
State for Climate Change & Environment, Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs to the Chairman
I am writing to inform you of an issue which
is to come before the General Affairs Council on 13 November.
This concerns a proposal for a Council Directive to amend the
current control regime for shipments of radioactive waste between
Member States and into and out of the Community.
An Explanatory Memorandum was prepared and submitted
on 24 January 2006, however it did not clear scrutiny due to uncertainties
over the regulatory impact of the measure on the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA).
The proposed Directive would replace Directive
92/3 Euratom and would extend the scope of the regulatory regime
to shipments of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing. Atomic Questions
Group has agreed to this extension of the scope. The proposal
would not materially change the existing administrative scheme
and extension of its scope to cover spent fuel should not imply
considerable additional costs.
When the Commission first introduced its proposal
in 2004, it was felt that extension of the control regime to shipments
of spent fuel could potentially impose a new regulatory burden
on the NDA and that this could involve substantial costs. This
statement was based on the NDA's aspiration of securing a substantial
amount of new reprocessing business and also on the prospect that
Member States politically opposed to reprocessing could cause
costly delays by refusing to allow such shipments to transit their
territory. Neither of these assumptions now appears to be valid.
In the latter case, the text of the Directive has been amended
to safeguard the free passage of shipments through the territorial
waters of other Member States and to limit refusals of consent
by transit States to breaches of transport regulations.
I very much regret that it has not been possible
to provide the Committee with an RIA so that scrutiny could be
completed for Council. However, I wish to inform your Committee
that this proposal is not contentious, does not alter in any significant
way the current control regime for shipments of radioactive waste
and we will be supporting the proposal. As such it is to go to
Council on 13 November as an "A" Point.
9 November 2006
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