Radioactive waste and protection of the environment
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text
adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of
the Assembly, on 23 November 2007 (see Doc. 11377, report of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture
and Local and Regional Affairs, rapporteur: Mr Meale).
- Thesaurus
1. Radioactive waste is and will continue
for future generations to be potentially very hazardous to human health
and the environment until such time as its radiation has decayed
to low levels; it is therefore important to carefully monitor its
management, in particular its storage and disposal. In its
Resolution 1435 (2005) on energy systems and the environment, the Parliamentary
Assembly stressed the need for an assessment of the long-term safe
storage and disposal of spent fuels and other forms of nuclear waste.
2. Nuclear energy has, after decades of stagnation, recently
been given a new impetus in Europe, due in particular to the fact
that, as a “clean” energy, it contributes to slowing climate change
and responds to the need to reduce Europe’s energy dependence, issues
which have both recently been dealt with by the Assembly in its
Recommendation 1779 (2007) and
Resolution
1531 (2007) on the danger of using energy supplies as an instrument
of political pressure.
3. The Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management
and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management (the Joint Convention)
of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered into force
in 2001. Today, the Joint Convention, the international waste safety
standards published by the IAEA and other international organisations,
and the IAEA’s mechanisms for providing for the application of those
standards have led to a de facto international radiation and nuclear
safety regime. The Joint Convention stipulates that contracting
parties “shall take the appropriate steps to ensure that at all
stages of radioactive waste management individuals, society and
the environment are adequately protected against radiological and
other hazards”.
4. As far as low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste is
concerned, a range of long-term solutions have already been found
and are currently in use, particularly surface and near surface
repositories.
5. A typical 1 000 MW nuclear reactor produces around 25 tonnes
of spent fuel per year. Spent fuel is very high-level radioactive
waste, which represents approximately 1% of all nuclear waste. There
are already more than 60 000 tonnes of spent fuel in storage facilities
in Europe, either on or off reactor sites. This is a reality which
must be dealt with, regardless of trends in the development of the
nuclear industry in Europe.
6. Regarding the management of spent fuel, the following options
are currently implemented or under consideration:
6.1 disposal of spent fuel in geologic
repositories;
6.2 reprocessing of spent fuel, recycling of reprocessed plutonium
and uranium, and disposal of waste remaining after reprocessing
operations;
6.3 a wait-and-see policy, which means first storing the fuel
and deciding later what reprocessing or disposal methods to employ.
7. The solution generally proposed by experts is the use of deep
geological repositories, with a combination of natural barriers
and engineered systems to provide physical and chemical waste containment.
In a number of European countries, however, siting a repository
has proven difficult: some countries have inappropriate geological
structures and in many cases the public continues to have fears
about safety, lacks confidence in the technology to be used and
has insufficient knowledge of available options.
8. A number of European countries have already taken concrete
steps toward designing and constructing geological repositories.
However, the development of these facilities is at very different
stages in these countries, because different approaches and timetables
have been used both for consulting public opinion and for putting
the results of research into practice. The most advanced countries
in this regard are Sweden and Finland, where stocking waste in deep
bedrock repositories will become effective in a few years’ time.
9. The question of nuclear waste is not only about the technical
construction of final repository facilities, but also an ethical
issue concerning our responsibility to future generations. Repositories
for spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste must be constructed
in such a way as to require little maintenance, if any, particularly
in the long term. However, future generations should be able to
both monitor and, if necessary, retrieve the spent nuclear fuel
or high-level radioactive waste from these repositories (for example,
if in the future technological progress offers better alternatives,
or if incidents – geological, safety-related, etc. – occur which
might affect the stability of the repository).
10. The Assembly expresses its concern about the inappropriate
management of nuclear waste that has been reported in certain Council
of Europe member states.
11. It calls on the Council of Europe member and observer states
confronted with the issue of nuclear waste management to:
11.1 encourage geological tests to
identify suitable sites (which ensure long-term stability and which allow
the use of multiple barriers to prevent radionuclides from reaching
the ground surface) for the building of deep geological repositories
for radioactive waste, this being the solution currently considered the
most appropriate in order to ensure the long-term preservation of
the environment, and, if such sites are identified, to proceed with
the building of such repositories;
11.2 support research and development which focuses on finding
alternative solutions to deep geological disposal of radioactive
waste (for example, changing the isotopic composition of waste to render
it harmless in a shorter length of time);
11.3 ensure the effective independence of the national authorities
in charge of the control and management of nuclear waste;
11.4 organise public and parliamentary debates on options concerning
the management of nuclear waste, its storage and the choice of repository
sites;
11.5 increase public awareness of all aspects of radioactive
waste management by promoting a policy of transparency regarding
the topics of production, transport, storage and final stockage
of waste;
11.6 ensure that the transport of nuclear waste from the production
sites to the storage and/or repository sites is carried out in full
respect of the principles of the IAEA Joint Convention;
11.7 take appropriate measures to increase safety and security
against possible terrorist acts, at reactor sites, during transport
of radioactive waste and at current storage facilities;
11.8 ensure that the building of all storage and/or disposal
sites is carried out under strict governmental and international
supervision to ensure that all safety and quality standards are
met;
11.9 ensure that the construction of repositories will enable
future generations to monitor and if necessary retrieve nuclear
waste, bearing in mind that such an operation should not be made
too easy or quick to perform;
11.10 involve as widely as possible local authorities, citizens
and NGOs in the process of deciding upon possible sites for building
final and other repositories, in order to increase public confidence
both in the methods used for choosing sites and in the technologies
for long-term management of nuclear waste;
11.11 allow local authorities and citizens living near the planned
repositories to express their opinions as far as possible, while
at the same time offering them the possibility to be associated
with the project by a collaboration contract;
11.12 allow local authorities concerned to take part in the
management of any disposal sites located within their respective
jurisdictions;
11.13 ensure that data on the disposal sites is centralised
both at national and international level, in particular in co-operation
with the IAEA, so that no loss of information can affect future
generations;
11.14 ratify, if they have not yet done so, the IAEA Joint Convention
on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive
Waste Management at the earliest possible date and to strictly comply
with its provisions.
12. Finally, the Assembly calls upon the European Union to develop,
in co-operation with the IAEA, common principles and standards to
be respected in the management of nuclear waste, and particularly
in the further development of final repositories for nuclear waste
in its member countries, such principles and standards having the
potential of being extended to the entire pan-European geographical
area.
