IP/05/1661

Brussels, 21 December 2005

Commission proposes reinforced legislation on transfer of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel

The Commission has adopted today a proposal for a Directive on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel. The new Commission proposal extends existing rules for authorising the trans-border movement of radioactive waste and extends them to spent nuclear fuel. It will make the rules easier to apply and more consistent with other EU and international provisions. Andris Piebalgs Energy Commissioner, said: “This user-friendly Directive takes into account the concerns that have been expressed by those involved in authorising movements of radioactive waste. By expressly covering shipments of spent nuclear fuel, it now makes clear that the same strict controls are required when moving such nuclear materials from one country to another”.

Radioactive waste is radioactive material for which no further use is foreseen (resulting from activities carried out in hospitals, industry, nuclear power plants, etc.). Because of its nature, strict rules are applicable in the EU every time that such waste has to be moved from one country to another. These movements need to be expressly authorised and controlled, to ensure that the population and environment are adequately protected and to reduce the possibility that materials are lost or stolen.

While the existing rules^[1] are satisfactory in practice, the Commission considers that they need to be simplified and that they should cover additional types of nuclear material. The new Directive will:

• Ensure consistency at EU and international level. The new Directive is fully consistent with the existing legislation for the health protection of workers and population against the dangers arising from ionising radiation.^[2] It also ensures consistency with international Conventions, in particular with the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management, to which the Community will accede in January 2006.^[3]
• Extend the scope to “spent fuel”. Spent nuclear fuel is nuclear fuel that has been removed from a nuclear reactor after use. At present, the controls applied for movements of radioactive waste are not always applied to spent fuel. This implies that procedures applicable for movements of spent fuel are not necessarily the same in each Member State.

The proposed Directive will put an end to this situation by expressly stating that its provisions are applicable to shipments of spent fuel.

^[1] Council Directive 92/3/Euratom of 3 February 1992 on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive waste between Member States and into and out of the Community, Official Journal L 035, 12/02/1992

^[2] See more information on Radiation Protection issues at

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/nuclear/radioprotection/legislation_en.htm

^[3] Commission Decision of 14 June 2005 (OJ L 185 of 16/07/2005, p.33).