Council Decision adopting a specific programme for research and training to be implemented by the Joint Research Centre by means of direct actions for the European Atomic Energy Community (1998-2002) (98/C 236/09) (Text with EEA relevance) COM(1998) 306 final - 98/0188(CNS)

(Submitted by the Commission on 10 June 1998)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 7 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee,

Whereas, by Decision . . ./. . ./Euratom, the Council adopted a fifth framework programme for community activities in the field of research and training for the European Atomic Energy Community (1998 to 2002), specifying the activities to be implemented by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for the European Atomic Energy Community;

Whereas Article 3 of the fifth framework programme stipulates that it shall be implemented through specific programmes adopted in accordance with Article 7 of the Treaty, one concerning in particular the JRC;

Whereas, according to Article 4(2) of Council Decision 94/268/Euratom (1) concerning the European Community fourth framework programme for activities in the field of research and training (1994 to 1998) and to Article 7(3) of the Council Decision related to the specific programmes implementing the direct action in the fourth framework programme, the Commission has requested to proceed to an external evaluation which has been transmitted, with its conclusions and observations, to the European Parliament, to the Council, to the Economic and Social Committee and to the Committee of the Regions;

Whereas the Scientific and Technical Committee and the Board of Governors of the JRC have been consulted on the scientific and technological objectives of this specific programme as described in the working document adopted on 5 November 1997 (2) by the Commission and also on the present Decision;

Whereas Council Decision . . ./. . ./Euratom concerning the rules for the participation of undertakings, research centres and universities allows the participation of the Joint Research Centre in indirect actions;

Whereas in the implementation of the present programme international cooperation activities could be appropriate, in conformity with Chapter X of the Treaty, with other third countries or international organisations;

Whereas the implementation of the present also includes activities and mechanisms aiming to stimulate, disseminate and exploit RTD results, in particular towards small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as activities supporting mobility and training of researchers;

Whereas, according to the objectives of the first action plan for innovation, research activities in the fifth framework programme must be better oriented to innovation; whereas the JRC should actively pursue activities in innovation and technology transfer;

Whereas the Joint Research Centre (JRC) should implement the research and training activities carried out by means of direct action, in particular the tasks entrusted to the Commission by the Treaty; whereas the Commission should undertake the tasks incumbent upon it in the area of nuclear fission, making use of the technical expertise of the JRC; whereas particular attention should be paid to the safety of the nuclear fuel cycle and its impact on man and the environment;

Whereas the implementation of this programme should be monitored with a view to its possible adaptation to scientific and technological developments and needs; whereas in due course there should be an independent evaluation of progress with the programme,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

In conformity with Article 3(1) of the fifth framework programme, a specific programme related to direct actions of research and training activities to be carried out by the JRC, (hereafter referred to as the 'specific programme`) is hereby adopted for the period from [. . .] to 31 December 2002.

Article 2

1. In agreement with Annex III to the fifth framework programme, the amount deemed as necessary for the execution of direct actions by the JRC under this programme (hereafter referred as the 'amount`) is ECU 326 million.

2. An indicative breakdown of this amount is given in Annex I.

3. Of this amount

- ECU 82,3 million are for the period 1998 to 1999,

- ECU 243,7 million are for the period 2000 to 2002.

This amount will be adapted in accordance with the conditions established in Article 3(3) of the fifth framework programme.

4. The budgetary authority shall lay down, in accordance with the scientific and technological objectives and priorities detailed in the present decision, the appropriations for each financial year, subject to the availability of resources within the pluriannual financial perspectives.

Article 3

1. Annex II specifies the major domains, the scientific and technological objectives and priorities of this programme, which are defined according to the fundamental principles and to the three categories of selection criteria indicated in Annex I to the fifth framework programme.

2. The general rules for the Community's financial contribution are laid down in Article 4 of the fifth framework programme.

3. Direct RTD Actions are defined in Annexes II an IV to the fifth framework programme.

4. Annex III sets out the specific rules for implementing this programme.

Article 4

With due regard to the criteria set out in Article 3(1) and to the scientific and technological objectives and priorities indicated in Annex II, the Commission shall

(a) monitor the implementation of this specific programme and submit, if necessary, adaptations, in conformity with Article 5(1) of the fifth framework programme;

(b) make an external assessment of the activities carried out within the areas covered by this programme, as foreseen in Article 5(2) of the fifth framework programme.

Article 5

1. The Commission establishes a work programme detailing:

(a) the content of Annex II;

(b) an indicative timetable for the implementation of the specific programme.

2. This work programme is updated, if necessary.

Article 6

1. The Commission is responsible for the implementation of the present programme, carried out by the JRC.

2. The Commission is advised by the Board of Governors of the JRC (hereinafter referred to as the 'Board of Governors`) in this task.

3. The representative of the Commission submits to the Board of Governors

(a) projects of measures related to the establishment and updating of the work programme referred in Article 5 of this decision;

(b) the terms of reference for the external evaluation foreseen in Article 5(2) of the fifth framework programme;

(c) any necessary adaptation to the objectives and priorities indicated in Annex II, or the distribution of financial resources indicated in Annex I to the specific programme to ensure that it is still appropriate in view of scientific and technological developments and needs.

4. The Commission regularly informs the Board of Governors of the implementation of this specific programme.

Article 7

The Commission may request the JRC to execute, on the basis of the criterion of mutual benefit, projects with legal entities established in third countries when this contributes effectively to the execution of direct actions.

Article 8

This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

(1) OJ L 115, 6.5.1994, p. 31, as last amended by Decision 96/253/Euratom (OJ L 86, 4.4.1996, p. 72).

(2) COM(97) 553 final, 5.11.1997.

ANNEX I

INDICATIVE BREAKDOWN OF THE AMOUNT DEEMED NECESSARY FOR THIS PROGRAMME

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ANNEX II

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES AND CONTENT OF THE DIRECT ACTIONS

A. The mission of the JRC

The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, implementation and monitoring of European Union policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of commercial or national interests.

Carrying out specific high-level research in close contact with industry and other bodies, the JRC supports the policy maker in addressing the concerns of the individual citizen, alleviating conflict between man and the environment and promoting sustainable development.

The JRC's work depends upon intensive networking with public and private institutions in the Member States through, for example, research networks, joint projects or staff exchanges. This is important because the JRC's mission is complementary to the indirect action part of the fifth framework programme; while the indirect actions will continue to be the European Union's main mechanism for developing and testing new ideas, the JRC's role is to help apply them in the service of the policy maker.

B. Objective: Maintaining a vigilant approach

The percentage of JRC activity devoted to nuclear activities is declining. Nuclear energy is considered a mature technology and, for reasons recently analysed in the Nuclear Community Illustrative Programme, no new power plants are on order.

Nevertheless, nuclear energy continues to supply about a third of Europe's electricity and vigilance is still required to ensure a continuation of Europe's outstanding safety record, to maintain efforts to avoid proliferation and to efficiently manage the processing and long-term storage of waste. New challenges include a reactor park whose average age is increasing, an enlargement of the Union to include countries with a different safety culture and the coming into safeguards of material arising from the disarmament process.

The Commission has specific Treaty obligations in nuclear energy and it has always relied on JRC to provide a technical support that can keep up with technological developments and face new challenges.

JRC's objectives are therefore to

- support the Commission in its Treaty obligations,

- remain vigilant so as to maintain Europe's excellent record in safety and safeguards,

- prepare to face the new challenges.

The two selection criteria for JRC activities are:

- relevance to European Union policies. An understanding of the policy agenda allows JRC research to be timely and support the formulation of policy where it is most needed,

- subsidiarity. This has two aspects. Firstly the research must be in an area where European Union involvement is appropriate and secondly it should be appropriate for this involvement to be through the JRC. Thus the JRC only operates where its unique pan-European identity provides an added value. In the nuclear area its action is justified by the cross-border aspects of nuclear safety and safeguards and by public concern about the issues.

C. The JRC programme

JRC's specific programme for the fifth framework programme is shaped with a view to focusing activities in areas where they have a high European added value or which correspond to tasks entrusted to the Commission by the Euratom Treaty. These activities aim to optimise, in a European, or even international framework, the use of JRC special facilities and core competencies, in particular where the JRC presents unquestionable excellence and is the unique holder of European knowledge.

Work on fusion will be scaled down in accordance with the Council Decision to postpone the decision on the next step and will concentrate on generic research on materials.

Activities on fission safety will take advantage of JRC's unique facilities and will focus on areas where JRC is considered a reference centre for Europe such as actinides and areas of public concern such as severe accidents and the handling of waste. Work on ageing of reactor materials will increase to reflect the increasing importance of this issue for safety authorities and industry. The needs of the enlargement countries will be given some priority.

Work on control of nuclear materials will continue at the same level in order to meet the present and future needs of inspectors. This will include measurement, analysis and monitoring techniques and the training of inspectors. Some prospective studies will be carried out in order to foresee the safeguard implications of proposed changes in the fuel cycle and to determine whether remote sensing can be used for the detection of illicit activities.

Lastly, some obsolete facilities will be decommissioned.

This programme should not to be considered a blueprint for the work programme over the next four years but rather a general outline that reflects the current view of the policy agenda and priorities. Changes to the JRC programme are to be expected as science and technology advance and the policy agenda and the priorities of the customer change.

1. Controlled thermonuclear fusion

The European programme on thermonuclear fusion represents a common effort where practically all activities of the European Union are coordinated in a unique management structure. The activities of the JRC are complementary to the Member States' activities and are totally integrated in this common effort on the same level as the Euratom associations. Therefore, under this programme, activities on tritium handling will be stopped and no radioactive material will be introduced in the ETHEL facility which may be used for other non-nuclear purposes. JRC's activities concentrate on specific skills and facilities of the JRC and concern:

- materials research and testing, with particular emphasis on low activation materials, the interaction of hydrogen and its isotopes with materials and components and participation in safety and environmental impact studies.

2. Nuclear fission safety

Even if nuclear fission is today considered a mature technology both the safety of nuclear installations and the management of the fuel cycle, notably the management of waste, cause considerable public concern. Also public authorities maintain vigilance and push for continuous improvement and industry maintains a strong interest in new technologies and further improvements. The JRC supports these efforts which are at the core of its mission. It also offers unique facilities and traditional competence and scientific excellence while concentrating on activities where the added value by its support is unquestioned. They concern:

- the ageing of materials and components: determination of the residual lifespan of reactors and their main components, improvement and qualification of in-service inspection techniques through the evaluation of structural integrity and the development of methodologies and the qualification of non-destructive examination techniques,

- the fuel cycle safety: basic research on actinides is an area where the JRC is regarded as the centre of excellence, and in which it will produce detailed knowledge of the properties of these elements. This is essential to the whole fuel cycle safety and efficiency (basic properties of new fuel and waste, licensing and industrial operations such as reprocessing, processing, storage and disposal of waste and spent fuel), in particular it allows detailed studies of the phenomena occuring during irradiation of nuclear fuel, as well as the optimisation of those fuels to enhance both safety and efficiency (e.g. increased rate of irradiation, advanced fuels); studies on partitioning and transmutation will focus on lowering the radiotoxicity of waste by reducing, or even eliminating, the presence of actinides and other long-lived radioactive elements in the fuel cycle, on the development of appropriate techniques for processing these materials,

- study of irradiated fuels with a view to direct disposal, in particular the characterisation of irradiated fuels, the examination of long-term behaviour under storage and final disposal conditions, and the determination of the risks associated with their radiotoxicity,

- the study of severe accidents, including the operation in a European network and with the support of international partners, of the FARO facility - the only one of its kind in the world - to allow the study of in-vessel and ex-vessel phenomena following core meltdown using real materials and representative configurations. The JRC will host in its large installations, in particular FARO, research teams from research organisms from Member States and reciprocally, it will contribute to European or international projects.

3. Control of nuclear materials and nuclear safeguards

The scientific and technical support necessary to implement safeguards pursuant to Chapter VII of the Treaty and the obligations arising from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the implementation of the Commission's IAEA support programme is part of a dual process:

- to meet the technological challenges of the large fuel cycle facilities, and

- to meet the new challenges arising following major international decisions, as well as the incorporation of new, more efficient technologies.

The JRC's impartiality is essential to support actions to combat illicit trafficking in nuclear materials and damage to the environment. The JRC's activities in this field are an integral part of a process both of European cooperation, as reflected in the European Safeguards Research and Development Association network, and of international cooperation with the United States of America, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina and Canada.

JRC activities will focus on:

- development and improvement of measurement, monitoring and analytical techniques with emphasis on automation: destructive and non-destructive testing and analytical techniques (including the development of high-performance analysis to detect traces of radioactive materials in the environment), sealing and confinement techniques, quality control; these activities concern in particular large reprocessing plants and the plutonium cycle, including MOX fuel, and will include the monitoring of performance in real operating conditions of industrial equipment and the study of its conformity with international standards,

- development of dedicated information technologies (processing techniques for the analysis and detection of anomalies between declarations and verifications; three-dimensional laser techniques for the monitoring of very sensitive areas); assessment of remote sensing as a method of detecting illicit nuclear activities: establishment of the requisite infrastructure for implementation for control purposes,

- evaluation with regard to controls on fissile materials, of certain innovative concepts in the fields of reactors and the fuel cycle; preparation of an approach that is adequate in terms of control,

- development of analytical techniques adapted to the fight against illicit trafficking and environmental damage involving radioactive materials (e. g. illicit dumping): research on analysis of specific properties of fissile materials such as isotopic composition, purity and granulation to evaluate intended use, date of fabrication, etc. and development of a database to collate these characteristics; development of ultra-sensitive analysis to make it possible to identify the routing of materials up to their place of seizure,

- training of inspectors and operators, in particular in new technologies.

4. Decommissioning and waste management

The JRC will undertake and intensify work on decommissioning and dismantling of installations used for nuclear activities which are no longer used for some time and are becoming obsolete. This will include the treatment and management, including disposal, of waste resulting from this work. This is of vital importance not only to protect the environment but also for the protection of workers and the eventual reduction of operational costs as it will reduce the need for monitoring and surveillance as nuclear activities are being reduced and concentrated.

- Establishment of a long term plan in order to ensure future and continuous implementation of these activities.

- Construction of an installation for the treatment of liquid wastes.

- Starting of decommissioning and dismantling operation of obsolete facilities and management of wastes issued from these activities.

ANNEX III

SPECIFIC RULES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE PROGRAMME

1. The Commission, advised by the Board of Governors of the JRC, shall implement the direct action on the basis of the scientific objectives and contents described in Annex I. The activities relating to this action shall be performed in the relevant institutes of the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

2. In the implementation of its activities, the JRC will, whenever appropriate and feasible, participate in or organise networks of public and private laboratories in the Member States or European research consortia. Particular attention shall be paid to cooperation with industry, especially with small and medium-sized enterprises. Research bodies established in third countries may also cooperate on projects, in accordance with the relevant provisions of Article 7 and, where applicable, of agreements for S& T cooperation between the Community and the third countries concerned. Particular attention will be paid to cooperation with research laboratories and institutes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The knowledge gained through implementation of the projects will be disseminated by the JRC itself (taking into account possible limitations due to confidentiality issues).

3. The accompanying measures shall include:

- the organisation of visits to JRC institutes of grant holders, visiting scientists and seconded experts,

- organisation of the secondment of JRC staff to national laboratories, industrial laboratories and universities,

- systematic exchange of information, through inter alia the organisation of scientific seminars, workshops and colloquia and scientific publications,

- specialised training with the emphasis on multidisciplinarity,

- the independent scientific and strategic evaluation of the performance of the projects and programmes.