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Nuclear facilities may have an impact on the neighbouring countries due to their radioactive releases. For this a requirement to inform the European Commission about planned licences exists.
Information of the European partners about nuclear facilities
 The Treaty for the foundation of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) was placed on 25 March 1957. It is one of the "Roman Treaties" which form the historic basis for the today's European Union.
Article 37 requires that each Member State is
to inform the European Commission about any plan for the disposal of radioactive
waste. In this context, a plan is a licence which regulates the releases by air or water
and the disposal from the installation of solid radioactive waste for normal operation. For
each plan such Deneral Data are to be provided as will
make it possible to determine whether the implementation of such plan
is liable to result in the radioactive contamination of water, soil or
airspace of another Member State. The General Data also comprise information on relevant accidents as analysed in the licence procedure.
The Commission is to deliver its opinion within six months.
Only after this opinion such disposal may be authorized by the competent
authority of the Member State concerned. These delivered opinions are
published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Implementation of proceedings according to Article 37 Euratom
In due time before the expected licence the Member State submits a report containing the "General Data". Details about the data that must be provided are summarised in the Commission Recommendation of 11 October 2010 (2010/635/Euratom).
In Germany, the General Data are provided to the European
Commission by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature
Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit - BMU). Since 1999 the
Federal Office for Radiation Protection gives support on this task.
Completed proceedings
From early 1999 until December 2010 in total 34 proceedings
under Article 37 for nuclear facilities in Germany were initiated, all were completed including
delivery of the respective positive opinions by the European
Commission.
Within the years 2002 and 2003 such proceedings under Article 37
were performed for the Interim Storage Facilities at the sites of the German nuclear power plants (NPP). For the Article 37
proceedings it is important whether the
licensed release limits for radioactive discharges of the NPP are
changed. Although this was not the case in any of these Interim Storage
Facilities, proceedings under Article 37 were necessary as the storage
of spent fuel are likely to be operated beyond the operating life-time
of the NPP themselves.
In recent time, proceedings comprising
the decommissioning of the research reactor Jülich
(FRJ-2), the erection of a new Interim Storage Facility for the finally shut down NPP Obrigheim and for the decommissioning of the Research Reactor München (FRM) of the University of Munichwere performed.
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