Here are the presentations given by NTW to the participants of this EP&R European Project. The goal was to share NTW’s results and views while considering the process and practices established towards Civil Society. Those presentations were given under the frame of two workshops.
Relevant studies
Chernobyl heritage and the E40 trans-Europe waterway
On April, 23rd 2020, The ACRO (the French “Association pour le Contrôle de la Radioactivité dans l’Ouest”) posted an article untitled “Chernobyl heritage and the E40 trans-Europe waterway”.
The introduction was the following:
“The E40 international waterway project aims to link the Baltic and Black Seas, from Gdansk to Kherson, via Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. In particular, it should cross the Polesia, the largest wilderness area in Europe, where it is likely to pose a high risk of degradation of natural areas in the Pripiatsky National Park (Прыпяцкі нацыянальны парк). In addition, part of the project includes the development of the Pripiat River, which flows at the foot of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and crosses the Polesie State Radio-Ecological Reserve (Палескі дзяржаўны дзяржаўны радыяцыйна-экалагічны запаведнік) in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, which is heavily contaminated by various radioelements.
It is in this context that ACRO carried out a first radio-ecological assessment of the project on commission of the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the “Save Polesia” partnership.”
Two documents were enclosed:
New report by Greenpeace: The global Crisis of Nuclear Waste
Authors: Pete Roche, Bertrand Thuillier, Bernard Laponche, Miles Goldstick, Hideyuki Ban and Robert Alvarez
Greenpeace commissioned some of the world’s leading experts on nuclear waste to produce an overview of the current status of nuclear waste across the world.
As the nuclear industry continues to struggle to compete in the rapidly evolving global energy market, the toxic legacy of decades of nuclear reactor operation and all the waste that continues to be produced to support it, remains a central element in any debate on the future of nuclear power, including decisions on nuclear reactor phase out.
For every year of nuclear reactor operation, nuclear waste volumes across the world will continue to be generated. Without exception, all countries reviewed were found lacking a no sustainable and safe solution for managing the vast volumes of nuclear waste. This includes high level spent fuel produced in all nuclear reactors, for which to date all efforts to find secure and safe permanent disposal options have failed.
Focusing on 7 major nuclearized countries (Belgium, France, Japan, Sweden, Finland, United Kingdom and United States), it shows that the multiple stages of the nuclear fuel cycle produce large volumes of radioactive wastes; and that no government has yet resolved how to safely manage these wastes.
The conclusion of the report is clear: underground repository research has failed as a solution.
Download the full report in English.
Download the full report in French.
“Security of nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools in France and Belgium and related reinforcement measures” Report by Greenpeace
Fuel pools: the Achilles heel of French and Belgian nuclear plants
Spent fuel pools are used to temporarily store the fuel from nuclear reactors. After irradiation in a reactor core, the fuel is still very hot and radioactive. It needs to be cooled in the water of these ponds, which also provides shielding from radiation. After a few years, a tiny part of this fuel will be “reprocessed”, while the remaining fuel waits for a final storage solution.
Independent experts who contributed to the writing of this report reviewed nuclear power plants in France and Belgium, and focused on the ability of spent fuel storage pools to withstand a malicious attack.
What does the report say?
Because it contains sensitive information about security at French and Belgian nuclear facilities, the report will not be released to the general public. It will be submitted by Greenpeace France, Greenpeace Belgium, Greenpeace Germany, Greenpeace Switzerland and Greenpeace Luxembourg to the relevant nuclear security authorities in order to alert them to the issue.
Read the executive summary of the report in english here.
The experts who participated are: Oda Becker (Germany), Manon Besnard (France), David Boilley (France), Ed Lyman (US), Gordon McKerron( UK), Yves Marignac (France), and Jean-Claude Zerbib (France).
New study: Health effects of ionising radiation and their consideration in radiation protection
By Gabriele Mraz from the Austrian Institute of Ecology and Oda Becker, Independent Expert for the Risks of Nuclear Facilities based in Hannover. It is supported by the Vienna Ombuds-Office for Environmental Protection.
While the effects of high radiation doses on humans (like acute radiation sickness) are documented quite well, the health effects of low radiation doses are still discussed highly controversially in radiation protection. Low doses result from nuclear installations during normal operation, from accident situations in nuclear facilities for workers and the public, from the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but also from medical exposure and natural background.
Based on new insights in health effects it can be concluded that the dose limits and levels in the BSS-Directive (Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom) and in the Food Level Regulation (Council Regulation Euratom 2016/52) are too high. They do not provide enough protection, especially for the embryo/foetus, children, pregnant women and young adults.
The extended summary can be downloaded here: summary.
Downolad the full study.
In the Joint Project, European NGOs and research institutions cooperate since 2003 on safe and sustainable energy issues with a focus on anti-nuclear activities in Central and Eastern Europe.
The long-term goals of the Joint Project are a nuclear phase-out in Europe, no new-build nuclear power plants, no renaissance of nuclear energy, no lifetime extension of old reactors, safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste and adequate public participation.
http://www.joint-project.org/
English summary of the Report of the German Commission on the Storage of High- Level Radioactive Waste
After more than two years of work the German commission on nuclear waste disposal (“Endlagerkommission”) in July 2016 released its final report. In February 2017 a translation of the summary of the report has been made available. The report focuses on the importance of the safety of a final repository and on siting issues as well as recommending a repository solution that is reversible. The report recognises the importance of transparency in information and public participation and ends by giving a number of political and social recommendations.
The English summary of the report of the German Commission on the Storage of High- Level Radioactive Waste: Donwload
There is within Germany from different sides still criticism on the operation of the Commission, which did not permanently exclude the Gorleben site, that has been considered for final disposal of German high-level radioactive waste, from future siting decisions. The Commission instead refers this issue to the German Government that is to draft a legal regulation on siting during 2017. This includes issues of transparency, among others about role of a strategic environmental assessment and related public participation questions.
More information is available on:
– Website “Aarhus Konvention”: http://aarhus-konvention-initiative.de.
Statement of Dr. Roda Verheyen concerning the violation of the Aarhus Convention by German Law commissioned by the Aarhus Konvention Initiative., forwarded to the German Environmental Ministry in June 2016: http://aarhus-konvention-initiative.de/aarhus-stellungnahme-umweltrechtsbehelfsgesetz/
– Website of Friends of the Earth Germany BUND: “the search process for a repository site for highly radioactive nuclear waste – BUND’s criticism and demands”.
EU nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes are over-budget and behind schedule
A September 2016 report from the European Court of Auditors hilglights that Eight reactors across sites in three countries – Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia –are years behind schedule in decommissioning and still require billions in funding. The decommissioning of these eight Soviet-designed nuclear reactors in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia was a condition for the countries’ EU accession.
This special report No 22/2016 is called “EU nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia: some progress made since 2011, but critical challenges ahead”: http://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/DocItem.aspx?did=37685.
The European court of auditors found that the EU funding programmes set up to assist with meeting this requirement have not created the right incentives for timely and cost-effective decommissioning. While some progress has been made, key infrastructure projects have experienced delays, and the critical challenges involved in working in the controlled areas still lie ahead.
The EU auditors said the reactor buildings at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy, Lithuania’s Ignalina and Slovakia’s Bohunice had yet to be dismantled and no solution had been found for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel.
Decommissioning costs vary according to the type and size of reactor, its location, the availability of disposal facilities and the condition of the reactor. The cost of final spent fuel depositories is also still largely unknown.
By 2020, EU support should have reached 3.8 billion euro. According to the European auditors, the estimated total cost of decommissioning will be at least 5.7 billion euro. That figure doubles if the cost of disposing spent fuel once and for all is included.
Other EU Member States face the same challenges. The report shines a spotlight on the challenges facing Germany and other nations within the bloc that are planning to retire their nuclear reactors.
According to EU Commission data, only three out of the 91 reactors shutdown in Europe have been fully dismantled. The only repository for spent fuel being dug deep underground in Europe has been under construction in Finland for nearly 40 years and won’t be ready until after 2020.
A working paper by the European Commission, seen by Reuters in February, showed that Europe was short of more than 118 billion euros needed to dismantle its nuclear plants and waste storage management[1].
[1] http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-nuclear-idUSKCN0VP1S6
NEW REPORT: Transparency and participation in RWM national programmes
A new report from the Joint Project
After about a year’s experience with available national waste management programmes until June 2016 based on Directive 2011/70/Euratom, the Joint Project produced a report about status of national programmes and SEAs in the JP countries. They analysed several aspects of transparency and public participation and their implementation in the countries.
This evaluation is based on selected results from an EU-financed project (BEPPER). While the BEPPER results provided us with a qualified position about transparency and participation from a societal and also scientific viewpoint (good practice), recent experience shows that this good practice mostly is not or only partially reflected in national programmes. Therefore a “reality check” of the national programmes of the Joint Project countries (if available) was carried out with the aim of identifying the Member states ́ approaches and comparing them to the recommendations of international good practice of transparency and participation, identifying inconsistencies and developing recommendations for improvement of the implementation of Art. 10 of the Waste Directive.
The report can be downloaded here
The joint working group consists of members from Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungaria, Romania and Poland. Current members of the Joint Project are:
- Calla – Association for Preservation of the Environment (CZ)
- South Bohemian Mothers (CZ)
- Energiaklub (HU)
- Za Zemiata (BG)
- Foundation for Environment and Agriculture (BG)
- Terra Mileniul III (RO)
- Association ‘Common Earth’ (‘Wspólna Ziemia’) (PL)
- Austrian Institute of Ecology (AT)
- Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation (HEPF)
EP&R chapter in IAEA publication
The IAEA recently published a new “Safety Reassessment for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities in Light of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant”.
On pages 27-30, there is a chapter on “Reassessment of Emergency Preparedness and Response”.
New report on Nuclear Safety in India
Greenpeace India today released a report lead by Davidd Boiley, Director of ACRO and member of NTW. The report, titled ‘Red Alert – India’s nuclear disaster plans, outdated and inadequate’, assesses India’s nuclear disaster plans and concludes that India’s plans do not offer a complete defence-in-depth for existing nuclear plants.
The report stresses the breaches of current India’s plans:
– The report examines differences with Fukushima and shows a lack of emergency preparedness and provides recommendations for the authorities to act upon.
– The manual on emergency preparedness at Kalpakkam still has emergency guidelines from an ancient manual adopted in 1984, well before the Chernobyl disaster.
– India’s acceptable limit of contaminated food are set dangerously higher than international limits.
– The report also examined the weak learnings of the recent nuclear accident at Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) and the lack of an Independent Nuclear Regulator.
Please download here the full report
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