The repository dream? Or Nightmare?...

EU proposes directive for nuclear waste disposal
English.news.cn   2010-11-04 02:19:38 FeedbackPrintRSS
BRUSSELS, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission issued a directive on Wednesday to propose safety standards for disposing spent fuel and radioactive waste from nuclear power plants as well as from medicine or research.

"We have to make sure that we have the highest safety standards in the world to protect our citizen, our water and the ground against nuclear contamination,"Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said. "We need a uniform European Union (EU)-wide action."

The commission proposes to set up a European legally-binding and enforceable framework to ensure that all member states will respect the common standards defined in the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the management and disposal of spent fuel and radioactive waste.

Within four years of the adoption of the directive, European member states will be asked to draw up national programs, indicating when, where and how they will construct and manage final repositories aimed at guaranteeing the highest safety standards.

"Each member state will have its own timetable," Oettinger said, arguing that procedures, sites and geological formation in European countries vary greatly.

"Finland, Sweden and France are the most ambitious countries," the commissioner said. The three countries actually plan to have their repository operational respectively in 2020, 2023 and 2025.

According to the directive, export of nuclear waste to countries outside the EU for final disposal will be forbidden. " Members states have to be responsible for the management of their own waste," Oettinger said.

The general public will also have to be informed by member states and will be invited to participate in the decision making process regarding waste management.

Some 7,000 cubic meters of high level waste are produced year by year in the EU since the first nuclear power reactor became operational 50 years ago, but EU still lacks final repositories. Scientists have highlighted the need to find a long-term solution for waste disposal in order to reduce risk of accidents. Experts therefore agreed the best technology would be in-depth storage, approximately 300 meters below the air surface.

Editor: yan