on nuclear safety in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States

Text adopted on 9.4.92

The European Parliament,

A. whereas the events of 24 March 1992 at the 'Leningradskaya-3' nuclear power station in Sosnovy Bor near St Petersburg are a reminder of the nuclear safety problems in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, including those of the Commonwealth of Independent States,

B. whereas the International Atomic Energy Agency considers that RBMK (Chernobyl, Sosnovy Bor etc.) and VVER-440/230 (Bohunice, Kozloduy etc.) reactors are highly dangerous and that worrying problems still remain with reactors of the VVER-440/213 type; whereas it is virtually impossible to achieve the minimum safety standards currently required in the countries of the European Community with these reactors,

C. whereas the production of electricity by nuclear energy is of major importance to the economies of the countries of Central and Eastern European and the CIS,

D. whereas the conclusions of the International Conference on Nuclear Energy Safety (Vienna 1991) call for an international convention on this subject; whereas international cooperation constitutes a vital aid to achieving a concerted approach to nuclear safety, particularly with a view to solving the problems of nuclear installations in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS,

E. having regard to the Community technical aid programme to the countries of the former USSR and the opportunities which Community programmes such as THERMIE, SAVE and JOULE, whose funding should be guaranteed, could offer these countries,

F. whereas it is possible, by means of advanced technology, to achieve a high level of energy efficiency by exploiting the great resources of natural gas, oil and coal; whereas, however, a transitional period of at least five years is necessary to enable the appropriate equipment to be made available and for measures to be taken to prevent similar incidents in future,

G. whereas the Committee on Energy, Research and Technology and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection are currently considering related problems,

1. Notes that the problems posed by the most dangerous of Central and Eastern Europe's nuclear reactors would require the expenditure of sums of money several times in excess of those currently available in the form of technical aid under the PHARE programme and the technical aid programme to the former USSR, and that the priorities of these programmes should therefore be subject to in-depth reassessment; further notes that the disintegration of these countries' industrial fabric and the demoralization of their technical experts will cause difficulties with the total overhaul of their nuclear installations;

2. Recalls the need for concentrating Community efforts on nuclear installations of a type permitting at least a level of safety similar to that of ordinary pressurized water reactors in the West and for including these installations in a list drawn up by the Commission within a report on the subject to be submitted to the European Parliament as soon as possible, and the concomitant need to encourage the gradual closure, by means of an adequately funded medium and long term energy programme, of the most dangerous nuclear power stations, imposing monitoring of the nuclear material in question, replacing them with other forms of power production, and placing the emphasis on energy-saving, decentralized power production, renewable energy, rational use of energy, and the use of high energy-efficiency designs;

3. Calls on the Commission to continue its cooperation efforts with these countries, with a view to establishing safety standards and standardized measuring, epidemiological and analysis methods for the design, operation, decommissioning and waste management of nuclear installations, so as to reduce the risks to workers, society at large and the environment, and to propose as a matter of urgency environmental/radiological research in the areas of Chelyabinsk, Semipalatinsk and Novaya Zemlaya, as well as, where necessary, appropriate aid and rehabilitation measures in cooperation with the countries of the OECD;

4. Deplores the fact that the IAEA did not in the past carry out any research or issue any clear reports on the safety of reactors in the former USSR, and calls on it to explain in full why it failed to fulfil its obligations;

5. Calls on the Commission to step up additional emergency information measures on nuclear accidents, to promote exchanges between nuclear power station operators in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and those in the Community, calling on the assistance of experts from the EC, the IAEA and WANO, and to initiate accompanying measures to avoid making excessive demands on human resources in this area;

6. Calls on the Council to encourage the Commission to apply its experience gained in the EURATOM safety monitoring field to international cooperation with those countries of Central and Eastern Europe wishing to set up a system for monitoring nuclear material, which currently represents a destabilizing force in world affairs;

7. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, EPC, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the OECD, the IAEA, and the authorities of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.