EU proposes new Council Directive on radioactive waste management

On 19 July 2011 the Council of the European Union passed a directive on the disposal of spent fuel elements and radioactive waste. The European Commission had already presented a draft on this issue in November 2010.

Objectives of the waste management directive

The draft directive aims at establishing a joint framework for the safe management of spent fuel elements and radioactive waste from civil use, from production to disposal. Thus it should be ensured that the Member States will establish appropriate basic standards for a high safety level, achieve and maintain a continuous improvement of their waste management system, inform the general public about their actions and give the citizens the opportunity to take effectively part in the decision-finding process associated with disposal.

Directive provides for disposal in respective Member State

The draft directive is based on the principle that radioactive waste is to be predominantly disposed of in the Member State where it has arisen. However, two or more Member States can agree upon using a repository in one of these Member States. The draft does not permit disposal in non-EU Member States.

The draft demands from the Member States to establish a national legislative, regulatory and organisational framework, a so-called national framework. Among others, this framework includes the Member States’ duty to establish national waste management programmes within four years after the Directive has come into effect. These programmes need to be evaluated on a regular basis and – if required, taking into account scientific and technical progress – to be updated. The draft directive demands a certain minimum content from the waste management programmes to be developed. For example, the programmes need to include an inventory of all spent fuel elements and radioactive waste. Furthermore, the Member States need to develop concepts, plans and technical solutions for both the construction of repositories and the time following the closure of the repositories. They also need to develop a concrete schedule for the implementation of these issues which also regulates responsibilities.

The waste management programmes have to be presented to the Commission. Should the Commission opine that the requirements of the draft Directive have not been met, it can demand an update by the Member States.

In terms of these obligations the draft Directive is based on the ultimate principle that the responsibility for safe waste management is finally with the Member States. The Member States have to ensure that those having been granted a licence for performing an activity associated with waste management cannot rid themselves of the associated responsibility.

Surveillance and control in Germany conform to EU

To ensure that the waste management takes place under the control of an independent federal licensing and regulatory authority, the draft Directive demands from the Member States that they take appropriate measures guaranteeing a functional separation of regulatory and licensing authority from all other institutions and organisations dealing with the management of spent fuel elements or radioactive waste.

According to current legislation this demand is complied with in several respects: The Federal Office for Radiation Protection is the operator of the repositories and files applications for the licences relating to the construction and operation of repositories to the competent federal state authorities. In terms of the construction, operation and also decommissioning of a repository the Federal Office for Radiation Protection is legally and technically supervised by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Like each operator of a facility according to Atomic Energy Act, the BfS has an organisational unit responsible for internal control, the staff section "Repository Surveillance". The unit’s professional independence is ensured by organisational and budgetary measures.

As regards contents the proposed Directive ties in with the DIRECTIVE 2009/71/EURATOM establishing a Community framework for the nuclear safety of nuclear installations, which was passed on 25 June 2009 by the Environment Council of the European Union and which was implemented into national law with the 12th Law to Amend the Atomic Energy Act which became effective on 27 December 2010. This Directive did not, however, regulate the issue of disposal of spent fuel elements and radioactive waste. With this draft one intends to apply the contents of the Directive on nuclear safety to nuclear waste repositories.

The directive was published at the beginning of August 2011 in the Official Journal of the European Union (ABl. L 199 of 02.08.2011, p. 48 in German).
Thus it becomes effective on 23.08.2011. Under the directive all the member states are obliged to implement it into national law within a period of two years, i.e. prior to 23.08.2013. Furthermore the member states have to present their national waste management programmes to the Commission four years after the directive has become effective, i.e. at the latest by 23.08.2015.

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