WRITTEN QUESTION No. 586/99 by Nuala AHERN Fourth report on the present situation and prospects for radioactive waste management in the European Union (COM(98) 799 final)
Date: 1999-03-12
Institutions: AHERN, European Parliament
Subjects: France, United Kingdom, database, dissemination of information, radioactive waste, report, waste management

C 348/104

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

3.12.1999

The research required to retrieve all the requested information from the notifications and annual reports of
Member States and to provide a detailed answer to the Honourable Member’s question would be out of all
proportion to the result obtained and would be inappropriate in the context of answering a written question.

(1999/C 348/131)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0586/99

by Nuala Ahern (V) to the Commission

(12 March 1999)

Subject: Fourth report on the present situation and prospects for radioactive waste management in the

European Union (COM(98) 799 final)

In the Commission Communication and Fourth Report on the present situation and prospects for radioactive
waste management in the European Union (COM(98) 799 final, dated 11 January 1999), the Commission
refers to numerous previous Council resolutions dating back to 1989 on which the strategy has been based, for
instance in section 1.8. Why has the Commission made no reference at all to Parliament’s report on the
transport and storage of radioactive waste drawn up by Mr Llewellyn Smith, A3-0220/93 (1), adopted with
amendments by Parliament on 16 July 1993? In particular, why has the Commission not responded to
recommendation 19 of the report calling upon the Commission to establish a complete database of all
categories of radioactive waste by location in the Community?

(1) OJ C 255, 20.9.1993, p. 255.

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission

(31 March 1999)

The main reference in the fourth report concerns the Council Resolution of 15 June 1992 that approved the
plan of action in the field of radioactive waste management (1). The first point of this plan ; the requirement to
provide the Council with an analysis of the situation and prospects in the field of radioactive waste
management in Member States ; is the basis for the fourth report. This analysis specifically requests
information on a number of topics,
including ‘the administrative, regulatory and legal structures and
frameworks’ relating to radioactive waste management in the Community. The other references to directives,
resolutions and communications in the section (Section 1.8) to which the Honourable Member refers respond
specifically to that request for information.

Recommendation No 17 in the Parliament Resolution on the environmental and public health aspects of the
storage, transport and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuels (2) called on the Commission to establish a complete
database of all categories of radioactive waste by location in the Community. This goes well beyond the
requirements of the plan of action which only require the Commission to compile a list of storage installations
‘having regard to the nature of the product to be stored’. It could be added that to produce the type of database
suggested in the Parliament’s report would be, to say the least, impractical. A complete database for one
Member State, for example the database for the United Kingdom produced by NIREX (DOE/RAS/96.001),
contains 444 pages, excluding several hundreds of pages of annexes. The report established for France by
ANDRA contains a similar number of pages. Republishing such information, that is already publicly available,
could be regarded as an improper use of scarce resources. Furthermore, the Commission believes that the
condensed summary of the data contained in its fourth report would be appreciated by a much wider audience.

On a more positive note, the Commission may shortly adopt a Recommendation on a Community
classification scheme for radioactive waste that should,
in future, help to improve the collection and
communication of information on all forms of radioactive waste.

(1) OJ C 158, 25.6.1992.
(2) OJ C 255, 20.9.1993.