WRITTEN QUESTION E-2396/98

by Laura González Álvarez (GUE/NGL) and Pedro Marset Campos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(27 July 1998)

Subject: Radiation leak in Algeciras (Spain)

In June 1998 it emerged that there had been a radiation leak at the Acerinox plant in Algeciras, in the Spanish province of Cadiz. The Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (Nuclear Safety Council) was told that a caesium 137 isotope with a half-life of 30 years which can penetrate the muscular system had become volatile during the smelting of scrap metal in which the radioactive substance was lodged. The contaminated scrap metal was placed in the plant's smelting furnace and radioactivity passed into the atmosphere and the slag, causing a radiation leak which may well have been responsible for the high levels of caesium 137 recorded in France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy between 25 May and 2 June 1998.

Traces of caesium 137 had also been found at two waste treatment plants to which the steelworks had been sending its waste to be fully detoxified. Both plants have since been shut down and sealed off, and its staff denied access to contaminated areas.

Bearing in mind that Acerinox was fined in October 1997 for failing to report the arrival of a lorry carrying radioactive scrap metal at its plant, and in the light of suspicions that Spain has breached the international protocol on nuclear accidents by not providing immediate notification of the leak:

1. Does the Commission intend to adopt the measures required to compile and check data, and if need be adopt the necessary legal measures?

2. What measures will the Commission take to put a stop to radioactive contamination caused by caesium 137?

3. Can the Commission look into whether the basic standards for health protection within the EU have been met, in keeping with Article 30 of the Euratom Treaty and Council Directives 80/836/Euratom(1) and 84/467/Euratom(2) amending the Directives laying down the basic safety standards for the health protection of the general public and workers against the dangers of ionising radiation?

4. Can the Commission say how it is monitoring the situation?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(21 September 1998)

At the end of May 1998, and the beginning of June a temporary but significant increase of Caesium-137 concentrations in air was detected in Italy, South-East France, and in Switzerland. The Commission progressively assembled the information from those concerned. This phenomenon was notified, as a precautionary measure, through the Community and International atomic energy agency communications systems to their respective national contact points on 11 June 1998, although the measured levels did not represent any threat to public health. The two systems forwarded subsequent complementary information as it was received. No Community Member State nor the Commission was in fact bound to issue a notification as no "measures of a wide-spread nature to protect the general public" had been implemented, which is the criterion set out in Article 1 of Council Decision 87/600/Euratom(3) on Community arrangements for the early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency.

The Commission has been in regular contact with the Spanish authorities since the release of contamination from the Acerinox plant was first notified. In July the Commission received a copy of an interim report of the Consejo de seguridad nuclear (CSN) to the Spanish Parliament. A full report elaborated by the CSN was received in mid-August and the content is currently being carefully analysed. There is no evidence that the Community basic safety standards for the protection of the general public and workers against the dangers of ionizing radiation have been infringed. For the workers involved in the incident, the Spanish authorities have estimated a maximum dose corresponding to 8 % of the annual limit relevant for the general public.

The levels of contamination in the environment do not represent any threat to public health and therefore no countermeasures have been implemented. The cleaning and decontamination of the treatment plants to which the steelworks had been sending its waste were expected to be completed before the month of September.

Following a request by the Parliament's environment committee, detailed information was transmitted to its chairman on 4 August 1998. As stated in that context, reflection is underway within the Commission on possible initiatives to prevent such events from occurring in future.

(1) OJ L 246, 17.9.1980, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 265, 5.10.1984, p. 4.

(3) OJ L 371, 30.12.1987.