Officials plan code on shutting EU reactors

Date: 08/04/1999

By Renee Cordes

EUROPEAN Commission officials are planning to draw up EU-wide guidelines on the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in an effort to ensure that member states do it as quickly, cheaply and safely as possible.

A draft study compiled by officials in the Commission's Directorate-General for the environment (DGXI) argues that Union guidelines would be of "significant benefit", helping to overcome shortcomings in member states' approaches to the issue.

DGXI intends to use the study as a basis for drafting a voluntary code of practice, which will be submitted to the full Commission for approval in the next few months.

More than 110 nuclear facilities across the EU are at various stages of the decommissioning process, with experts predicting that a further 160 or more will need to be taken out of service over the next 15 years. The guidelines would seek to speed up the process, reducing the time frame in some cases from more than 100 to 30 years.

Officials claim some governments delay the process because of funding problems. "We have quite a short-term approach on this," said one. "Is it correct to let the children of our children do the decommissioning and find the money to pay for it?"

Critics point out that this often results in nuclear waste being reused, which in turn generates greater long-term costs.

The study drawn up by Commission officials argues guidelines are needed to ensure that quantities of waste produced during the decommissioning process are minimised. It suggests, for example, that possibilities for recycling or reusing materials should be explored.

Officials also stress the need to develop a code of practice for countries bidding to join the EU, as they have an estimated 50 sites between them which will need to be decommissioned.

German Green MEP Undine Bloch von Blottnitz says member states need to consider urgently what to do with radioactive waste from nuclear plants. "The Greens are sure that sooner or later all EU countries will go the German way," she told MEPs recently, referring to the Bonn government's plan to phase out nuclear energy. "There is a huge amount of nuclear waste, and the EU has no idea what to do with it."

Von Blottnitz has called for a European Decommissioning Fund to be set up to speed up the process of disabling plants.

Kevin Langley, who is responsible for dismantling nuclear facilities for the UK Atomic Energy Authority, welcomed the Commission's move to develop Union-wide guidelines. But he warned that the institution might find it "difficult" to persuade industry to accept a uniform definition of allowable levels of nuclear and related waste.