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Document 92003E004038

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4038/03 by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission. Processing of radioactive waste in Ukraine.

IO C 88E, 8.4.2004, p. 666–667 (ES, DA, DE, EL, EN, FR, IT, NL, PT, FI, SV)

European Parliament's website

8.4.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 88/666

(2004/C 88 E/0685)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4038/03

by Herbert Bösch (PSE) to the Commission

(12 January 2004)

Subject:   Processing of radioactive waste in Ukraine

On 10 November 2003, the Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten, attended a conference in Kiev on the Wider Europe – New Neighbourhood' initiative. He also visited the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and laid the foundation stone of an industrial centre for radioactive waste treatment.

1.

Can the Commission state the overall cost of the project?

2.

Can the Commission provide details of the project's funding and the amounts contributed by individual financial backers?

3.

Through which projects and how substantially is the European Union committed to financing the processing of nuclear waste in third countries?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(24 February 2004)

1.

The Member of the Commission responsible for External Relations laid the foundation stone of the Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management (ICSRM). The ICSRM is a part of the complex which is being built in Chernobyl to address the important issue of radioactive waste. The overall budget for the ICSRM is EUR 44 million. Other installations, funded by the Nuclear Safety Account, managed by EBRD, are the Liquid Radwaste Treatment Plant (LRTP – EUR 25,7 million) and the plant to handle and store the spent fuel (ISF – EUR 95,3 million).

2.

The budget of the ICSRM is provided by the EU TACIS Nuclear Safety Programme (EUR41,3 million) and Ukrainian Government (EUR 2,7 million). Additionally an on-site coordination unit is being financed to pursue project management, with an amount of EUR 4,25 million until July 2004 and a likely extension (EUR 3,5 million) up to the completion of the ICSRM.

3.

The Commission follows the strategy laid out in the TACIS Regulation 99/2000, which states, as one of the priorities, the improvement of nuclear safety by ‘supporting the development and implementation of spent fuel, and decommissioning and nuclear waste management strategies, including in North West Russia in the context of wider international co-operation’.

Besides the projects mentioned under point 1 for Chernobyl, the TACIS Program is funding projects to tackle the issue of nuclear waste in North West Russia.

For instance, the Commission is:

—

taking part in the Northern Dimension Environmental Fund (NDEP), managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), to which the TACIS programme contributes with EUR 40 million and,

—

funding projects like the ‘Lepse’ Project to take care of spent nuclear fuel from ice-breakers, which is stored aboard this ship. Some preliminary works (about EUR 2 million) were carried out in 1998-1999. Further support is foreseen for the completion of the works regarding defuelling.

In Kazakhstan, the TACIS Program is to carry out a project in two steps to remedy the nuclear waste problems of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, resulting from more than 460 nuclear weapons tests that took place during the period 1949-1989. For this project, EUR 1 million is allocated in the Annual Programme 2003. Furthermore, up to EUR 4 million are foreseen in the 2004-2006 Multiannual Indicative Programme.
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