Question No 7 by Alex Smith (H-0440/94)

Subject: Transfrontier shipments of nuclear waste

On 8 May, the European Union became party to the Basle Convention on the transfrontier shipment of hazardous and toxic waste, which emphasizes the importance of the originator of such waste dealing with its management and disposal as close to the point of production as possible. A different set of criteria as incorporated in the EU waste shipment regulation (259/93/EEC) seems to prevail for radioactive waste.

EU policy promotes trade in nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel between EU Member States and into Member States from countries outside the EU and to such countries from Member States.

Will the President explain why the French nuclear fuel and reprocessing company, COGEMA, is being permitted to offer the German electric power company, PREUSSENELEKTRA AG, in a letter dated 6 June 1994, nuclear fuel management services that would result in the interim storage and ultimate geological disposal in France of unreprocessed spent nuclear fuel?

Will the President further explain whether the new annex to the 1980 reprocessing contracts, dated 4 May 1994, will permit the one-time transfer of title to the radioactive waste and reprocessed plutonium from the spent nuclear fuel sent from Germany to France, and whether such a transfer is deemed to be within the spirit and letter of EU law?