WRITTEN QUESTION E-1121/01 by Esko Seppänen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Final storage of spent nuclear fuel.
Date: 2001-04-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU policy, radioactive waste, underground storage of waste, waste management

C 318 E/210

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.11.2001

(2001/C 318 E/228)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1121/01

by Esko Sepp(cid:228)nen (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 April 2001)

Subject: Final storage of spent nuclear fuel

Some European countries will shortly be taking decisions on final storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. Does
the Commission see any possibility of nuclear fuel storage policy being placed on a Community footing so
that each country does not have to keep this material itself but can have it stored in the sites which are the
safest from the point of view of the whole EU?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(8 June 2001)

The Commission encourages co-operation between Member States concerning the disposal of high level
waste. This includes spent nuclear fuel if it not to be sent for reprocessing. In its Communication to the
Council in January 1999 (1), the Commission took the following line: (cid:145)The Commission repeats its plea for
self-sufficiency of the European Union as a whole and solidarity between Member States in matters of
radioactive waste disposal. As in the strategy for non-radioactive waste the Union should aim for self-
sufficiency, even if transfer to countries outside the Union is not excluded in Community legislation on
control of shipment of radioactive waste. The possibility of voluntary co-operation between Member States
however should be kept open, where,
for example, a regional approach to disposal could result in
improved safety and environmental benefits(cid:146).

The Commission believes that this should continue to be the Community(cid:146)s approach. The benefits of
a regional approach are of particular interest to the Member States without, or with very small, nuclear
power programmes where the cost of disposing of their very limited quantities of waste will have an
extremely high unit cost. On the other hand, the Commission believes that all those Member States with
nuclear power programmes should at least have the capability to safely manage their own wastes,
including their eventual disposal, even if there were to be voluntary co-operation on a regional approach.

However, the geology and tectonic setting of Western Europe is such that a variety of sites have been or
could be identified that would be suitable for geological disposal. Moreover, as pointed out in the recent
Green Paper on security of energy supply (2), (cid:145)definitive storage is feasible and construction and operating
techniques are mature enough to be applied(cid:146). The geology of Europe, coupled with the technical barriers
that would be used in a repository, mean that it is very likely that every Member State could identify at
least one potential site on its territory.

(1) COM(98) 799 final.
(2) COM(2000) 769 final.

(2001/C 318 E/229)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1132/01

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

Subject: Establishment of a new EAGGF paying agency in Greece

(10 April 2001)

In adopting Law No 2892 of 9 March 2001 the Greek government has set up a new paying agency which
will carry out payments for the EAGGF(cid:129)Guarantee section programmes contained in the agricultural
development planning document, and specifically payments for compensation, early retirement, agro-
environmental measures and reafforestation. The reason for the establishment of this new paying agency
was that it constituted a Commission requirement for the payment of appropriations to those eligible.