WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1282/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Council. Search for permanent nuclear waste storage site in eastern Belgium and Lorraine
Date: 1997-04-10
Institutions: BREYER, European Parliament
Subjects: Belgium, Lorraine, application of EU law, carriage of goods, frontier region, public health, radiation protection, radioactive waste, storage of waste, waste management













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91997E1282

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1282/97 by Hiltrud BREYER to the Council. Search for permanent nuclear waste storage site in eastern Belgium and Lorraine  


Official Journal C 391 , 23/12/1997 P. 0065 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-1282/97 by Hiltrud Breyer (V) to the Council (10 April 1997)Subject: Search for permanent nuclear waste storage site in eastern Belgium and LorraineFor several years Belgium has been searching for a suitable site for the permanent storage of nuclear waste, apparently for waste with low radioactivity. The first choice of site near Amel (eastern Belgium) was shelved following strong transfrontier protests by the local inhabitants. Press reports now indicate that Bovigny could be the new site. It has also emerged ('Die Rheinpfalz', 4 March 1997) that plans are afoot to set up a permanent site in Lorraine - in this case, for highly radioactive waste - and a budget assessment procedure has already been initiated in this connection.Will the Council say:1. what information it has about the search for nuclear waste sites in the neighbouring countries of Belgium and France?2. what substances and what quantities of these substances are due to be stored on a permanent basis in the earmarked sites in Belgium and France, respectively?3. what standards are applied by the Belgian and French authorities in respect of the site requirements and the technical installations of a permanent nuclear waste site, and how it assesses these?Answer (14 July 1997)The Council attaches great importance to the question of permanent storage of radioactive waste and refers in this context to its Resolution of 19 December 1994 on radioactive-waste management ((OJ C 379, 31.12.1994, p. 1. )), in which it emphasized that the establishment of suitable facilities for the treatment, conditioning, storage and final disposal of radioactive waste makes a necessary and important contribution to the creation of a safe waste-management infrastructure in general.These facilities should be established in compliance with the Community legislation in force, in particular Council Directive 96/29/Euratom of 13 May 1996 laying down basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiation ((OJ L 159, 29.6.1996, p. 1. )) and Council Directive 92/3/Euratom of 3 February 1992 on the supervision and control of shipments of radioactive wastes between Member States and into and out of the Community ((OJ L 35, 12.2.1992, p. 24. )).Furthermore, Article 37 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community stipulates that each Member State shall provide the Commission with general information relating to any plan for the disposal of radioactive waste in whatever form and that the Commission shall deliver its opinion within six months.