EU tightens nuclear waste rules
Source: Agencies |
July 20, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RADIOACTIVE waste from Europe's 143 nuclear reactors must in future be buried in secure bunkers, ministers from EU member states agreed yesterday.
The new rules force national nuclear authorities to draw up disposal plans by 2015, which will be vetted by Europe's Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger.
"After years of inaction, the EU for the very first time commits itself to a final disposal of nuclear waste," Oettinger said in a statement. The 14 European Union member states using nuclear power currently store the radioactive waste in surface bunkers or warehouses for decades while it cools down.
But crises such as Russia's wildfires last summer and leakage at Japan's stricken Fukushima plant have highlighted the risks posed by surface storage.
Nuclear energy has not been popular in Europe since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but it is even less so since Fukushima, and Germany has even agreed to phase out nuclear power completely by 2022.
Oettinger has made nuclear safety one of the main issues of his five-year tenure, pushing ministers to develop a pan-European safety strategy for the first time.
The first step in that strategy is a series of "stress tests" on nuclear plants, which started in June. The second is yesterday's decision to dispose of spent nuclear fuel in secure repositories.
Oettinger's team will vet national strategies and has stated its preference for "deep geological repositories" - caverns to be built in clay or granite rocks between 100 and 700 meters underground.
The new rules force national nuclear authorities to draw up disposal plans by 2015, which will be vetted by Europe's Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger.
"After years of inaction, the EU for the very first time commits itself to a final disposal of nuclear waste," Oettinger said in a statement. The 14 European Union member states using nuclear power currently store the radioactive waste in surface bunkers or warehouses for decades while it cools down.
But crises such as Russia's wildfires last summer and leakage at Japan's stricken Fukushima plant have highlighted the risks posed by surface storage.
Nuclear energy has not been popular in Europe since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, but it is even less so since Fukushima, and Germany has even agreed to phase out nuclear power completely by 2022.
Oettinger has made nuclear safety one of the main issues of his five-year tenure, pushing ministers to develop a pan-European safety strategy for the first time.
The first step in that strategy is a series of "stress tests" on nuclear plants, which started in June. The second is yesterday's decision to dispose of spent nuclear fuel in secure repositories.
Oettinger's team will vet national strategies and has stated its preference for "deep geological repositories" - caverns to be built in clay or granite rocks between 100 and 700 meters underground.
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