EU / EURATOM Status in Radiation Protection, Safety of Reactor Systems and Radioactive Waste Management
Chair: Horia Grama (ANDR, RO), Co-chair: Massimo Garribba (EC, DG ENER), Rapporteur: Hans Forsstrom (SE)
The Euratom Treaty provides the legal Framework to ensure a safe and sustainable use of peaceful nuclear energy across Europe and helps non-EU countries meet equally high standards of safety and radiation protection, safeguards and security. With legally binding Nuclear Safety Directive (2009/71/Euratom) and its latest amendment (2014/87/Euratom), EU nuclear stress tests, complemented with common safety approaches of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the EU became the first major regional nuclear actor with a legally binding regulatory framework as regards to nuclear safety. Furthermore, this legal framework has been recently complemented by the Directive (2011/70/Euratom) that establishes a Community framework for the responsible and safe management of spent fuel and radioactive waste (both from fission and fusion systems), and the Directive (2013/59/Euratom) laying down basic safety standards for protection against the dangers arising from exposure to ionising radiation.
Directives on Nuclear Installations’ Safety (Art.7), Nuclear Waste Management (Art.8), Basic Safety Standards (Ch.4) and IAEA Convention on Nuclear Safety, all emphasize that each MS shall take the appropriate steps to ensure that sufficient numbers of qualified staff with appropriate education, training and re-training are available for all safety-related activities in – or for each – nuclear installation throughout its life. ‘Conclusions’ were issued at: a) ‘EU Competitiveness Council in November 2008 encouraging Member States and the EC to establish a ‘review of EU professional qualifications and skills’ in the nuclear field; and b) a ‘Second Situation Report on EU E&T in the Nuclear Energy Field’ was published in 2014 by the European Human Resources Observatory in the Nuclear Energy Sector (EHRO-N, the latest created in 2009 by the European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF)).
International / EU/ Euratom latest state of implementation of the main directives in radiation protection, safety of reactor systems and radioactive waste management, and role of the projects co-funded in the framework of EU/Euratom research and training programmes, challenges and research expectations will be presented during this FISA2019 EURADWASTE’19 plenary session.