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
Date: 2011-07-19

num: Article 1
title: Subject-matter
paragraphs: 1. This Directive establishes a Community framework for ensuring responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste to avoid imposing undue burdens on future generations.
2. It ensures that Member States provide for appropriate national arrangements for a high level of safety in spent fuel and radioactive waste management to protect workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiation.
3. It ensures the provision of necessary public information and participation in relation to spent fuel and radioactive waste management while having due regard to security and proprietary information issues.
4. Without prejudice to Directive 96/29/Euratom, this Directive supplements the basic standards referred to in Article 30 of the Euratom Treaty as regards the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
num: Article 2
title: Scope
paragraphs: 1. This Directive shall apply to all stages of:
(a)
spent fuel management when the spent fuel results from civilian activities;
(b)
radioactive waste management, from generation to disposal, when the radioactive waste results from civilian activities.
2. This Directive shall not apply to:
(a)
waste from extractive industries which may be radioactive and which falls within the scope of Directive 2006/21/EC;
(b)
authorised releases.
3. Article 4(4) of this Directive shall not apply to:
(a)
repatriation of disused sealed sources to a supplier or manufacturer;
(b)
shipment of spent fuel of research reactors to a country where research reactor fuels are supplied or manufactured, taking into account applicable international agreements;
(c)
the waste and spent fuel of the existing Krško nuclear power plant, when it concerns shipments between Slovenia and Croatia.
4. This Directive shall not affect the right of a Member State or an undertaking in that Member State to return radioactive waste after processing to its country of origin where:
(a)
the radioactive waste is to be shipped to that Member State or undertaking for processing; or
(b)
other material is to be shipped to that Member State or undertaking with the purpose of recovering the radioactive waste.
This Directive shall not affect the right of a Member State or an undertaking in that Member State to which spent fuel is to be shipped for treatment or reprocessing to return to its country of origin radioactive waste recovered from the treatment or reprocessing operation, or an agreed equivalent.
num: Article 3
title: Definitions
paragraphs: For the purpose of this Directive the following definitions shall apply:
(1)
‘closure’ means the completion of all operations at some time after the emplacement of spent fuel or radioactive waste in a disposal facility, including the final engineering or other work required to bring the facility to a condition that will be safe in the long term;
(2)
‘competent regulatory authority’ means an authority or a system of authorities designated in a Member State in the field of regulation of the safety of spent fuel or radioactive waste management as referred to in Article 6;
(3)
‘disposal’ means the emplacement of spent fuel or radioactive waste in a facility without the intention of retrieval;
(4)
‘disposal facility’ means any facility or installation the primary purpose of which is radioactive waste disposal;
(5)
‘licence’ means any legal document granted under the jurisdiction of a Member State to carry out any activity related to the management of spent fuel or radioactive waste, or to confer responsibility for siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation, decommissioning or closure of a spent fuel management facility or of a radioactive waste management facility;
(6)
‘licence holder’ means a legal or natural person having overall responsibility for any activity or facility related to the management of spent fuel or radioactive waste as specified in a licence;
(7)
‘radioactive waste’ means radioactive material in gaseous, liquid or solid form for which no further use is foreseen or considered by the Member State or by a legal or natural person whose decision is accepted by the Member State, and which is regulated as radioactive waste by a competent regulatory authority under the legislative and regulatory framework of the Member State;
(8)
‘radioactive waste management’ means all activities that relate to handling, pretreatment, treatment, conditioning, storage, or disposal of radioactive waste, excluding off-site transportation;
(9)
‘radioactive waste management facility’ means any facility or installation the primary purpose of which is radioactive waste management;
(10)
‘reprocessing’ means a process or operation, the purpose of which is to extract fissile and fertile materials from spent fuel for further use;
(11)
‘spent fuel’ means nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in and permanently removed from a reactor core; spent fuel may either be considered as a usable resource that can be reprocessed or be destined for disposal if regarded as radioactive waste;
(12)
‘spent fuel management’ means all activities that relate to the handling, storage, reprocessing, or disposal of spent fuel, excluding off-site transportation;
(13)
‘spent fuel management facility’ means any facility or installation the primary purpose of which is spent fuel management;
(14)
‘storage’ means the holding of spent fuel or of radioactive waste in a facility with the intention of retrieval.
num: Article 4
title: General principles
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall establish and maintain national policies on spent fuel and radioactive waste management. Without prejudice to Article 2(3), each Member State shall have ultimate responsibility for management of the spent fuel and radioactive waste generated in it.
2. Where radioactive waste or spent fuel is shipped for processing or reprocessing to a Member State or a third country, the ultimate responsibility for the safe and responsible disposal of those materials, including any waste as a by-product, shall remain with the Member State or third country from which the radioactive material was shipped.
3. National policies shall be based on all of the following principles:
(a)
the generation of radioactive waste shall be kept to the minimum which is reasonably practicable, both in terms of activity and volume, by means of appropriate design measures and of operating and decommissioning practices, including the recycling and reuse of materials;
(b)
the interdependencies between all steps in spent fuel and radioactive waste generation and management shall be taken into account;
(c)
spent fuel and radioactive waste shall be safely managed, including in the long term with passive safety features;
(d)
implementation of measures shall follow a graded approach;
(e)
the costs for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste shall be borne by those who generated those materials;
(f)
an evidence-based and documented decision-making process shall be applied with regard to all stages of the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste.
4. Radioactive waste shall be disposed of in the Member State in which it was generated, unless at the time of shipment an agreement, taking into account the criteria established by the Commission in accordance with Article 16(2) of Directive 2006/117/Euratom, has entered into force between the Member State concerned and another Member State or a third country to use a disposal facility in one of them.
Prior to a shipment to a third country, the exporting Member State shall inform the Commission of the content of any such agreement and take reasonable measures to be assured that:
(a)
the country of destination has concluded an agreement with the Community covering spent fuel and radioactive waste management or is a party to the Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (‘the Joint Convention’);
(b)
the country of destination has radioactive waste management and disposal programmes with objectives representing a high level of safety equivalent to those established by this Directive; and
(c)
the disposal facility in the country of destination is authorised for the radioactive waste to be shipped, is operating prior to the shipment, and is managed in accordance with the requirements set down in the radioactive waste management and disposal programme of that country of destination.
CHAPTER 2
OBLIGATIONS
num: Article 5
title: National framework
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall establish and maintain a national legislative, regulatory and organisational framework (‘national framework’) for spent fuel and radioactive waste management that allocates responsibility and provides for coordination between relevant competent bodies. The national framework shall provide for all of the following:
(a)
a national programme for the implementation of spent fuel and radioactive waste management policy;
(b)
national arrangements for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management. The determination of how those arrangements are to be adopted and through which instrument they are to be applied rests within the competence of the Member States;
(c)
a system of licensing of spent fuel and radioactive waste management activities, facilities or both, including the prohibition of spent fuel or radioactive waste management activities, of the operation of a spent fuel or radioactive waste management facility without a licence or both and, if appropriate, prescribing conditions for further management of the activity, facility or both;
(d)
a system of appropriate control, a management system, regulatory inspections, documentation and reporting obligations for radioactive waste and spent fuel management activities, facilities or both, including appropriate measures for the post-closure periods of disposal facilities;
(e)
enforcement actions, including the suspension of activities and the modification, expiration or revocation of a licence together with requirements, if appropriate, for alternative solutions that lead to improved safety;
(f)
the allocation of responsibility to the bodies involved in the different steps of spent fuel and radioactive waste management; in particular, the national framework shall give primary responsibility for the spent fuel and radioactive waste to their generators or, under specific circumstances, to a licence holder to whom this responsibility has been entrusted by competent bodies;
(g)
national requirements for public information and participation;
(h)
the financing scheme(s) for spent fuel and radioactive waste management in accordance with Article 9.
2. Member States shall ensure that the national framework is improved where appropriate, taking into account operating experience, insights gained from the decision-making process referred to in Article 4(3)(f), and the development of relevant technology and research.
num: Article 6
title: Competent regulatory authority
paragraphs: 1. Each Member State shall establish and maintain a competent regulatory authority in the field of safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management.
2. Member States shall ensure that the competent regulatory authority is functionally separate from any other body or organisation concerned with the promotion or utilisation of nuclear energy or radioactive material, including electricity production and radioisotope applications, or with the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, in order to ensure effective independence from undue influence on its regulatory function.
3. Member States shall ensure that the competent regulatory authority is given the legal powers and human and financial resources necessary to fulfil its obligations in connection with the national framework as described in Article 5(1)(b), (c), (d) and (e).
num: Article 7
title: Licence holders
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall ensure that the prime responsibility for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management facilities and/or activities rest with the licence holder. That responsibility can not be delegated.
2. Member States shall ensure that the national framework in place require licence holders, under the regulatory control of the competent regulatory authority, to regularly assess, verify and continuously improve, as far as is reasonably achievable, the safety of the radioactive waste and spent fuel management facility or activity in a systematic and verifiable manner. This shall be achieved through an appropriate safety assessment, other arguments and evidence.
3. As part of the licensing of a facility or activity the safety demonstration shall cover the development and operation of an activity and the development, operation and decommissioning of a facility or closure of a disposal facility as well as the post-closure phase of a disposal facility. The extent of the safety demonstration shall be commensurate with the complexity of the operation and the magnitude of the hazards associated with the radioactive waste and spent fuel, and the facility or activity. The licensing process shall contribute to safety in the facility or activity during normal operating conditions, anticipated operational occurrences and design basis accidents. It shall provide the required assurance of safety in the facility or activity. Measures shall be in place to prevent accidents and mitigate the consequences of accidents, including verification of physical barriers and the licence holder’s administrative protection procedures that would have to fail before workers and the general public would be significantly affected by ionising radiation. That approach shall identify and reduce uncertainties.
4. Member States shall ensure that the national framework require licence holders to establish and implement integrated management systems, including quality assurance, which give due priority for overall management of spent fuel and radioactive waste to safety and are regularly verified by the competent regulatory authority.
5. Member States shall ensure that the national framework require licence holders to provide for and maintain adequate financial and human resources to fulfil their obligations with respect to the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management as laid down in paragraphs 1 to 4.
num: Article 8
title: Expertise and skills
paragraphs: Member States shall ensure that the national framework require all parties to make arrangements for education and training for their staff, as well as research and development activities to cover the needs of the national programme for spent fuel and radioactive waste management in order to obtain, maintain and to further develop necessary expertise and skills.
num: Article 9
title: Financial resources
paragraphs: Member States shall ensure that the national framework require that adequate financial resources be available when needed for the implementation of national programmes referred to in Article 11, especially for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, taking due account of the responsibility of spent fuel and radioactive waste generators.
num: Article 10
title: Transparency
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall ensure that necessary information on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste be made available to workers and the general public. This obligation includes ensuring that the competent regulatory authority inform the public in the fields of its competence. Information shall be made available to the public in accordance with national legislation and international obligations, provided that this does not jeopardise other interests such as, inter alia, security, recognised in national legislation or international obligations.
2. Member States shall ensure that the public be given the necessary opportunities to participate effectively in the decision-making process regarding spent fuel and radioactive waste management in accordance with national legislation and international obligations.
num: Article 11
title: National programmes
paragraphs: 1. Each Member State shall ensure the implementation of its national programme for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste (‘national programme’), covering all types of spent fuel and radioactive waste under its jurisdiction and all stages of spent fuel and radioactive waste management from generation to disposal.
2. Each Member State shall regularly review and update its national programme, taking into account technical and scientific progress as appropriate as well as recommendations, lessons learned and good practices from peer reviews.
num: Article 12
title: Contents of national programmes
paragraphs: 1. The national programmes shall set out how the Member States intend to implement their national policies referred to in Article 4 for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste to secure the aims of this Directive, and shall include all of the following:
(a)
the overall objectives of the Member State’s national policy in respect of spent fuel and radioactive waste management;
(b)
the significant milestones and clear timeframes for the achievement of those milestones in light of the over-arching objectives of the national programme;
(c)
an inventory of all spent fuel and radioactive waste and estimates for future quantities, including those from decommissioning, clearly indicating the location and amount of the radioactive waste and spent fuel in accordance with appropriate classification of the radioactive waste;
(d)
the concepts or plans and technical solutions for spent fuel and radioactive waste management from generation to disposal;
(e)
the concepts or plans for the post-closure period of a disposal facility’s lifetime, including the period during which appropriate controls are retained and the means to be employed to preserve knowledge of that facility in the longer term;
(f)
the research, development and demonstration activities that are needed in order to implement solutions for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste;
(g)
the responsibility for the implementation of the national programme and the key performance indicators to monitor progress towards implementation;
(h)
an assessment of the national programme costs and the underlying basis and hypotheses for that assessment, which must include a profile over time;
(i)
the financing scheme(s) in force;
(j)
a transparency policy or process as referred to in Article 10;
(k)
if any, the agreement(s) concluded with a Member State or a third country on management of spent fuel or radioactive waste, including on the use of disposal facilities.
2. The national programme together with the national policy may be contained in a single document or in a number of documents.
num: Article 13
title: Notification
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall notify to the Commission their national programmes and any subsequent significant changes.
2. Within 6 months of the date of notification, the Commission may request clarification and/or express its opinion on whether the content of the national programme is in accordance with Article 12.
3. Within 6 months of receiving the Commission’s reaction Member States shall provide the requested clarification and/or inform the Commission of any revision of the national programmes.
4. The Commission, when deciding on the provision of Community financial or technical assistance for spent fuel and radioactive waste management facilities or activities, shall take into account the Member States’ clarifications and progress regarding the national programmes.
num: Article 14
title: Reporting
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall submit a report to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive for the first time by 23 August 2015, and every 3 years thereafter, taking advantage of the review and reporting under the Joint Convention.
2. On the basis of the Member States’ reports, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council the following:
(a)
a report on progress made with the implementation of this Directive; and
(b)
an inventory of radioactive waste and spent fuel present in the Community’s territory and the future prospects.
3. Member States shall periodically, and at least every 10 years, arrange for self-assessments of their national framework, competent regulatory authority, national programme and its implementation, and invite international peer review of their national framework, competent regulatory authority and/or national programme with the aim of ensuring that high safety standards are achieved in the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. The outcomes of any peer review shall be reported to the Commission and the other Member States, and may be made available to the public where there is no conflict with security and proprietary information.
CHAPTER 3
FINAL PROVISIONS
num: Article 15
title: Transposition
paragraphs: 1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive before 23 August 2013. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
When Member States adopt these measures, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.
2. The obligations for transposition and implementation of provisions related to spent fuel of this Directive shall not apply to Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg and Malta for as long as they decide not to develop any activity related to nuclear fuel.
3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive and of any subsequent amendments to those provisions.
4. Member States shall for the first time notify to the Commission the content of their national programme covering all the items provided for in Article 12 as soon as possible, but not later than 23 August 2015.
num: Article 16
title: Entry into force
paragraphs: This Directive shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.