Background

The financing for decommissioning of nuclear plants is a complex issue. The main purpose of dedicating financial resources to decommissioning is to make sure that it will be possible to carry out the decommissioning work while ensuring a high level of nuclear safety. In order to meet the requirements of sustainability, decommissioning financing systems have already been set up in each and every EU member state with a nuclear programme. Decommissioning operations are being successfully carried out in several countries, thus demonstrating the practical implementation of existing arrangements.

Latest Developments

On 26 October 2004, the European Commission adopted a Communication on decommissioning funding (title: Report on the use of financial resources earmarked for the decommissioning of nuclear power plants ). Following the publication of the Communication as well as the release of a European Parliament own-initiative report in May 2005, the European Commission issued its Recommendation in March 2006.

The European Commission then issued another Recommendation in October 2006 on the way that Member States should appropriate, manage and use funds destined for the decommissioning of nuclear installations and for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. A further Commission Communication is expected this autumn.

FORATOM Decommissioning Financing Task Force

FORATOM supports the general principles that underpin the October 2006 Recommendation, namely that sufficient decommissioning funds should be set aside, that funding arrangements are managed in a transparent way and that any decommissioning activity should be carried out with safety and environmental protection as primary considerations. FORATOM acknowledges the European Commission's call for harmonisation of rules governing the appropriation and use of decommissioning funds. It particularly welcomes the Recommendation's emphasis on maintaining a flexible approach to harmonisation that recognises how operational, regulatory and legal conditions vary among the Member States.

Ongoing financing arrangements have been put in place across the EU, yet the systems vary because of national differences, in terms of nuclear programmes, decommissioning requirements, financial, legal and commercial arrangements etc. However, any initiative should give member states the freedom to establish comparable financing systems that would be the most appropriate for the countries concerned, taking into account their own current needs and existing regulations.

Links

• European Commission Decommissioning of Nuclear Installations
• European Commission Recommendation October 2006
• FORATOM broadly welcomes EC's recommendation on the efficient use of nuclear decommissioning funds in the EU'