EC 'in no hurry' on EU nuclear safety, waste laws: Piebalgs

Brussels (Platts)--8Nov2005

The European Commission is prepared to wait for the adoption of its two
draft laws on nuclear safety and waste, European Union energy commissioner
Andris Piebalgs told Platts on the sidelines of a nuclear conference in
Brussels late Monday. "We're not in a hurry," said Piebalgs.
     The EC has been negotiating with the EU Council of member state
governments since 2002 to get the two EU harmonized laws adopted under the
Euratom treaty. The final versions have hit a stalemate in the Council, with a
minority of member states blocking adoption but not enough to reject the
proposal entirely. "The EC will continue to strive for adoption of the nuclear
package," said Piebalgs. "Both safety and waste management must be ensured for
nuclear to remain part of the EU energy mix."
     But for the moment Piebalgs is simply hoping for the Council to resume
the debate. "It depends on the EU presidency--hopefully under Finland
(January-June 2006) we'll get a deeper debate," he said. Finland has decided
to build a nuclear power plant--the first newbuild in Europe for decades--to
reduce its dependency on power imports from Russia. The EC is also impressed
by Finland's thought out and publicly accepted decommissioning and waste
management strategy--something it would like all member states to have.
     But Piebalgs was not expecting the debate to lead to immediate adoption.
"Member states are cooperating on safety and so far it's not a problem," said
Piebalgs. "It's a bottom up approach." The Council has set up a working party
on nuclear safety to look at nuclear safety and waste management in the EU
with the aim of reporting conclusions by end-2006. The WPNS is to take account
of two reports by the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association planned
for end-2005--one on safety and one on waste management and decommissioning--
which are to recommend steps to a harmonized approach. Wenra members are to
respond with national action plans before end-2006, which are also to feed
into the WPNS report.
     Delegates at the conference supported the bottom up approach, arguing
that the differences between each nuclear power plant's situation were too
great for top down safety standards to be useful. But a bottom up approach
does not rule out eventual binding rules. "Experience shows that all voluntary
initiatives become directives eventually," said Piebalgs. The EC is also
working on a non-binding recommendation on best practice for nuclear
decommissioning funds. It wants member states to show that they can ensure
that they have set aside enough available funds to pay for the decommissioning
when needed, and that such funds are managed completely transparently.

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