WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2153/98 by Antoni GUTIÉRREZ DÍAZ to the Commission. Acerinox and radioactive scrap metal
Date: 1998-07-13
Institutions: European Parliament, GUTIERREZ DIAZ
Subjects: Spain, industrial building, metal waste, nuclear safety, occupational health, occupational safety, radioactive waste, waste management

29.4.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 118/33

The Commission would also point out that document XV/E/9926/95, to which the Honourable Member
refers in his question, is not a study but merely a compendium of Member States(cid:146) replies to a Commission
questionnaire on the situation of psychologists and psychotherapists in the Community. The questionnaire
was intended for the group of coordinators which helps the Commission to administer the (cid:145)general system(cid:146)
Directives and was designed for information purposes only.

(1) OJ L 19, 24.1.1989.
(2) OJ L 209, 24.7.1992.
(3) OJ C 332, 28.11.1994.
(4) OJ C 268, 26.9.1994.
(5) OJ C 21, 22.1.1998.

(1999/C 118/038)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2153/98

by Antoni GutiØrrez D(cid:237)az (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Acerinox and radioactive scrap metal

(13 July 1998)

At the beginning of June 1998 a radioactive leak occurred (apparently of caesium 137) on the premises of
the Acerinox company (in Algeciras, Spain), which specializes in the processing of scrap metal. As a
consequence the Acerinox employees underwent a medical examination, as did those of two other
companies (one in Huelva and the other in Badajoz) which receive scrap metal from Acerinox in order to
process it as powdered steel. The Nuclear Safety Council detected the leak before 9 June but made no
announcement of the fact. Environmental groups consider that Spain has contravened the international
protocol on nuclear accidents by failing to report the leak immediately.

Will the Commission provide answers to the following questions:

1. Where did the scrap metal come from?

2. What was the radioactive source within the scrap metal?

3. What amount of radioactivity did the source contain overall?

4. How much radioactivity escaped in the form of a radioactive cloud?

5. How much radioactivity has remained in the ashes?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard On behalf of the Commission

(16 September 1998)

The report from the Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) to the Spanish Parliament, forwarded
to the Commission by the Spanish authorities, indicates that all the scrap metal processed by Acerinox
came from outside Spain. The possibility of it being of Spanish origin has been completely ruled out.

It appears that the origin of the batch containing the source can be identified, though there seems to be little
chance of identifying the precise origin of the source within the batch.

The radioactive source was a source of caesium 137. Its precise activity is as yet unknown, though an
estimate from the CSN puts it at between 8 and 80 curies (Ci).

The escaped radioactivity represents a sizeable proportion of the source activity. The CSN mentions
activities of between 800 and 1900 becquerels per gram in the dust caught in the smoke filter system, and a
complete absence of radioactivity in the slag.