MANAGEMENT OF SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL AND RADIOACTIVE
WASTE (12386/04)
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 update you on developments concerning
Draft Instrument 12386/04 of September 2004, concerning an amended
proposal for a Council Directive (Euratom) on the safe management
of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
You will recall that the original "nuclear
package" of draft Directives on radioactive waste management
and on nuclear safety was rejected in May 2004 by Coreper, who
concluded that Council Conclusions in this area were more appropriate.
These Council Conclusions were made in June 2004. The Commission
subsequently made a revised proposal for Directives in September
2004, but no Presidency has yet put them on its agenda for discussion
in Council. The nuclear package, as you know, was the subject
of a House of Lords inquiry in 2005-06 and a debate in that House
last month.
The Council Conclusions set an agenda for the
Commission to work with Member States to assess the outcome of
work in relevant international fora and to engage in wide-ranging
consultation, in order to determine whether, and if so which,
Euratom measures are required in relation to nuclear safety and
radioactive waste management. The assessment of international
work has been carried forward over the last two years by a Council
sub-group, the Working Party on Nuclear Safety (WPNS).
The final report from the WPNS, which was agreed
on 13 December 2006, recommended, in respect of radioactive waste
management, that a reporting and feedback mechanism should be
established at EU level in order to:
(a) urge each Member State to establish and
make widely available its national radioactive waste management
programme;
(b) review the outcome of the Joint Convention
review process to identify issues to be dealt with at the EU level;
(c) consider how Member States use standards
promulgated by the International Atomic Energy Agency and other
international organisations, as a basis for their national regulatory
framework; and
(d) consider the relevance of the activities
of the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA)
to the safe management of radioactive waste and spent fuel.
In addition, WPNS recommended that a summary
report on work undertaken should be presented to the Council and
the European Parliament at regular intervals.
The current German Presidency has proposed new
Council Conclusions to set out in detail how these WPNS recommendations
should be implemented. This proposal is currently under discussion
in Atomic Questions Group. It involves the establishment of a
senior regulators' forum at EU level, with sub-groups addressing
nuclear safety, the management of radioactive waste and spent
fuel, and decommissioning. It is expected that these new Council
Conclusions will be in place within the next few months.
21 February 2007
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