Council Directive 2011/70/EuratomShow full title

CHAPTER 2 U.K. OBLIGATIONS

Article 5 U.K. National framework

1. Member States shall establish and maintain a national legislative, regulatory and organisational framework (‘national framework’) for spent fuel and radioactive waste management that allocates responsibility and provides for coordination between relevant competent bodies. The national framework shall provide for all of the following:

(a) a national programme for the implementation of spent fuel and radioactive waste management policy;

(b) national arrangements for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management. The determination of how those arrangements are to be adopted and through which instrument they are to be applied rests within the competence of the Member States;

(c) a system of licensing of spent fuel and radioactive waste management activities, facilities or both, including the prohibition of spent fuel or radioactive waste management activities, of the operation of a spent fuel or radioactive waste management facility without a licence or both and, if appropriate, prescribing conditions for further management of the activity, facility or both;

(d) a system of appropriate control, a management system, regulatory inspections, documentation and reporting obligations for radioactive waste and spent fuel management activities, facilities or both, including appropriate measures for the post-closure periods of disposal facilities;

(e) enforcement actions, including the suspension of activities and the modification, expiration or revocation of a licence together with requirements, if appropriate, for alternative solutions that lead to improved safety;

(f) the allocation of responsibility to the bodies involved in the different steps of spent fuel and radioactive waste management; in particular, the national framework shall give primary responsibility for the spent fuel and radioactive waste to their generators or, under specific circumstances, to a licence holder to whom this responsibility has been entrusted by competent bodies;

(g) national requirements for public information and participation;

(h) the financing scheme(s) for spent fuel and radioactive waste management in accordance with Article 9.

2. Member States shall ensure that the national framework is improved where appropriate, taking into account operating experience, insights gained from the decision-making process referred to in Article 4(3)(f), and the development of relevant technology and research.

Article 6 U.K. Competent regulatory authority

1. Each Member State shall establish and maintain a competent regulatory authority in the field of safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management.

2. Member States shall ensure that the competent regulatory authority is functionally separate from any other body or organisation concerned with the promotion or utilisation of nuclear energy or radioactive material, including electricity production and radioisotope applications, or with the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, in order to ensure effective independence from undue influence on its regulatory function.

3. Member States shall ensure that the competent regulatory authority is given the legal powers and human and financial resources necessary to fulfil its obligations in connection with the national framework as described in Article 5(1)(b), (c), (d) and (e).

Article 7 U.K. Licence holders

1. Member States shall ensure that the prime responsibility for the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management facilities and/or activities rest with the licence holder. That responsibility can not be delegated.

2. Member States shall ensure that the national framework in place require licence holders, under the regulatory control of the competent regulatory authority, to regularly assess, verify and continuously improve, as far as is reasonably achievable, the safety of the radioactive waste and spent fuel management facility or activity in a systematic and verifiable manner. This shall be achieved through an appropriate safety assessment, other arguments and evidence.

3. As part of the licensing of a facility or activity the safety demonstration shall cover the development and operation of an activity and the development, operation and decommissioning of a facility or closure of a disposal facility as well as the post-closure phase of a disposal facility. The extent of the safety demonstration shall be commensurate with the complexity of the operation and the magnitude of the hazards associated with the radioactive waste and spent fuel, and the facility or activity. The licensing process shall contribute to safety in the facility or activity during normal operating conditions, anticipated operational occurrences and design basis accidents. It shall provide the required assurance of safety in the facility or activity. Measures shall be in place to prevent accidents and mitigate the consequences of accidents, including verification of physical barriers and the licence holder’s administrative protection procedures that would have to fail before workers and the general public would be significantly affected by ionising radiation. That approach shall identify and reduce uncertainties.

4. Member States shall ensure that the national framework require licence holders to establish and implement integrated management systems, including quality assurance, which give due priority for overall management of spent fuel and radioactive waste to safety and are regularly verified by the competent regulatory authority.

5. Member States shall ensure that the national framework require licence holders to provide for and maintain adequate financial and human resources to fulfil their obligations with respect to the safety of spent fuel and radioactive waste management as laid down in paragraphs 1 to 4.

Article 8 U.K. Expertise and skills

Member States shall ensure that the national framework require all parties to make arrangements for education and training for their staff, as well as research and development activities to cover the needs of the national programme for spent fuel and radioactive waste management in order to obtain, maintain and to further develop necessary expertise and skills.

Article 9 U.K. Financial resources

Member States shall ensure that the national framework require that adequate financial resources be available when needed for the implementation of national programmes referred to in Article 11, especially for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, taking due account of the responsibility of spent fuel and radioactive waste generators.

Article 10 U.K. Transparency

1. Member States shall ensure that necessary information on the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste be made available to workers and the general public. This obligation includes ensuring that the competent regulatory authority inform the public in the fields of its competence. Information shall be made available to the public in accordance with national legislation and international obligations, provided that this does not jeopardise other interests such as, inter alia, security, recognised in national legislation or international obligations.

2. Member States shall ensure that the public be given the necessary opportunities to participate effectively in the decision-making process regarding spent fuel and radioactive waste management in accordance with national legislation and international obligations.

Article 11 U.K. National programmes

1. Each Member State shall ensure the implementation of its national programme for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste (‘national programme’), covering all types of spent fuel and radioactive waste under its jurisdiction and all stages of spent fuel and radioactive waste management from generation to disposal.

2. Each Member State shall regularly review and update its national programme, taking into account technical and scientific progress as appropriate as well as recommendations, lessons learned and good practices from peer reviews.

Article 12 U.K. Contents of national programmes

1. The national programmes shall set out how the Member States intend to implement their national policies referred to in Article 4 for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste to secure the aims of this Directive, and shall include all of the following:

(a) the overall objectives of the Member State’s national policy in respect of spent fuel and radioactive waste management;

(b) the significant milestones and clear timeframes for the achievement of those milestones in light of the over-arching objectives of the national programme;

(c) an inventory of all spent fuel and radioactive waste and estimates for future quantities, including those from decommissioning, clearly indicating the location and amount of the radioactive waste and spent fuel in accordance with appropriate classification of the radioactive waste;

(d) the concepts or plans and technical solutions for spent fuel and radioactive waste management from generation to disposal;

(e) the concepts or plans for the post-closure period of a disposal facility’s lifetime, including the period during which appropriate controls are retained and the means to be employed to preserve knowledge of that facility in the longer term;

(f) the research, development and demonstration activities that are needed in order to implement solutions for the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste;

(g) the responsibility for the implementation of the national programme and the key performance indicators to monitor progress towards implementation;

(h) an assessment of the national programme costs and the underlying basis and hypotheses for that assessment, which must include a profile over time;

(i) the financing scheme(s) in force;

(j) a transparency policy or process as referred to in Article 10;

(k) if any, the agreement(s) concluded with a Member State or a third country on management of spent fuel or radioactive waste, including on the use of disposal facilities.

2. The national programme together with the national policy may be contained in a single document or in a number of documents.

Article 13 U.K. Notification

1. Member States shall notify to the Commission their national programmes and any subsequent significant changes.

2. Within 6 months of the date of notification, the Commission may request clarification and/or express its opinion on whether the content of the national programme is in accordance with Article 12.

3. Within 6 months of receiving the Commission’s reaction Member States shall provide the requested clarification and/or inform the Commission of any revision of the national programmes.

4. The Commission, when deciding on the provision of Community financial or technical assistance for spent fuel and radioactive waste management facilities or activities, shall take into account the Member States’ clarifications and progress regarding the national programmes.

Article 14 U.K. Reporting

1. Member States shall submit a report to the Commission on the implementation of this Directive for the first time by 23 August 2015, and every 3 years thereafter, taking advantage of the review and reporting under the Joint Convention.

2. On the basis of the Member States’ reports, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council the following:

(a) a report on progress made with the implementation of this Directive; and

(b) an inventory of radioactive waste and spent fuel present in the Community’s territory and the future prospects.

3. Member States shall periodically, and at least every 10 years, arrange for self-assessments of their national framework, competent regulatory authority, national programme and its implementation, and invite international peer review of their national framework, competent regulatory authority and/or national programme with the aim of ensuring that high safety standards are achieved in the safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste. The outcomes of any peer review shall be reported to the Commission and the other Member States, and may be made available to the public where there is no conflict with security and proprietary information.