(2004/C 78 E/0066)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2001/03

by Jan Dhaene (PSE) and Patricia McKenna (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(16 June 2003)

Subject:   Radioactive discharges from Sellafield

The ‘Fisheries Section Committee’ of the International Transport Federation (ITF) has called on North Sea states to demand that the UK stop radioactive discharges from Sellafield. Several national transport unions have adopted this request. The problem is not limited to the UK; Cogéma in La Hague causes widespread radioactive pollution of the local environment.

One of the isotopes that concerns the ITF the most is Technetium-99 (Tc99). This isotope is discharged into the Irish Sea, although it is technically possible for it to be filtered out and collected before the waste water is discharged in to the sea.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(30 July 2003)

The Commission is aware of the issues raised by the Honourable Members.

The Community is a Contracting Party to the Oslo-Paris (OSPAR) Convention and is represented at OSPAR meetings by the Commission. The central objective of the strategies adopted by the OSPAR Commission to advance its work, is the protection of the OSPAR maritime area. One of these strategies concerns radioactive substances and has the specific objective that by the year 2020 discharges, emissions and losses of radioactive substances are reduced to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions and losses, are close to zero.

The OSPAR Commission is assisted in the implementation of the strategy with regard to radioactive substances by its Radioactive Substances Committee (RSC), which meets at least once a year. The Commission is an active participant in this Committee contributing significantly to the understanding and awareness of the discharge of radioactive substances from all sources into the maritime area. As part of this contribution, the Commission recently completed a study known as Marína II, which examined all radioactive discharges and their effects on the OSPAR maritime area including effects on biota, consumers of seafood and individuals engaged in fishing in the proximity of such discharges.

The Commission is firmly committed to the attainment of the objective of the OSPAR strategy with regard to radioactive substances, which requires the progressive and substantial reduction of all radioactive discharges by 2020. At the first ministerial meeting of the OSPAR Commission in Sintra, July 1998, the concern of a number of contracting parties about technetium-99 discharges from Sellafield was noted, and the United Kingdom ministers indicated that such concerns would be addressed. These concerns were emphasised again at the recent OSPAR ministerial meeting in Bremen in June 2003. Furthermore, the initiative of the United Kingdom to request the operator of Sellafield to stop discharges from its medium active concentrate (MAC) treatment process for nine months while further research and development of abatement technology is carried out was welcomed.

It should, nevertheless, be noted that while activity concentrations of technetium-99 are relatively high, the radiological impact of technetium-99 discharges to the environment is small compared to other radionuclides, including naturally occurring radionuclides.