Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of the work under the nuclear decommissioning assistance programme to Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia in 2015 and previous years

Upon their accession to the EU, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia committed to close down eight Soviet-designed nuclear power plants before the end of their scheduled lifetime. In exchange, the EU committed to provide financial assistance to the three Member States for decommissioning the designated power plants, namely:
- Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) units 1 to 4 in Bulgaria;
- Ignalina NPP in Lithuania; and
- Bohunice V1 NPP in Slovakia.

Since 2014, the scope of the nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes is to assist the relevant Member States in implementing the steady process towards the decommissioning end-state whilst ensuring that the highest safety standards are applied.

In all three cases, the end-state is defined as brownfield: the nuclear reactor buildings will be dismantled as well as those auxiliary buildings that are not intended for re-use; near-surface repositories will be built or upgraded to dispose of low and intermediate level radioactive waste from decommissioning; and interim storage facilities will be commissioned for spent fuel and radioactive waste that cannot be disposed of in near-surface repositories.

Beyond decommissioning the disposal of spent fuel and radioactive waste in a deep geological repository is developed by each Member State in its national programme for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste as required by the relevant directive.

The current assistance programme provides no new financial support for mitigation measures in the energy sector; the implementation of existing projects will, however, continue for several years.

This report reviews the progress in 2015 and previous years under the European Union nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes. It fulfils the reporting requirements of the relevant Council Regulations and will be the basis for adopting the next annual work programmes under the assistance programmes.