Nuclear Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP&R):
Applying the lessons of Fukushima in the context of the implementation of the Basic Safety Standards (BSS) Directive
11th December 2015
Summary
During the Post-Fukushima European Nuclear Safety Stress Tests, Civil Society (CS) has drawn the attention of EU and national authorities to the urgent necessity to update and rescale the existing provisions of EP&R in the EU as a component of an in-depth nuclear safety review, a key challenge here being achieving the practical implementation of EP&R provisions at European and National levels.
In December 2013, the European Commission completed a first appraisal of the current state of Nuclear EP&R provisions in Europe (the ENCO study – “Review of current off-site nuclear emergency preparedness and response arrangements in EU member states and neighbouring countries“).
NTW has carried out (2013-2014) a review of existing EP&R provisions at EU and national levels and published a report[1]synthesising the CS concerns and expectations and a position paper[2] summarising the findings and recommendations for the scaling up of the European capacity to cope with a large scale accident such as Fukushima.
The revised Basic Safety Standards (BSS) Directive (2013/59/Euratom) involves the updating of the EP&R provisions by 6th February 2018 and offers a real opportunity for improving the current situation.
On December 3rd 2015, NTW was invited by DG ENER to participate in the Workshop “More Effective EP&R at the EU level under the BSS Directive” involving the representatives of the Member States’ Authorities that are in charge of the transposition of this Directive. It was for NTW an opportunity to present the views and expectations of Civil Society on this very sensitive issue. See: the presentation of Dr Nadja Železnik, Chair of the NTW EP&R Working Group, “Public information and stakeholder involvement in EP&R “.
The presentation of NTW illustrated the potential contribution of CS to an effective and qualitative transposition of the BSS Directive.
NTW calls on the European Commission to support CS in:
1) further refining the picture of the current challenges for EP&R country by country in Europe,
2) establishing the criteria for an effective and qualitative transposition in a participatory way, and
3) defining, testing and implementing stakeholder engagement methods and processes.
This should be incorporated in the DG energy work program and give rise to action starting in the course of 2016.
[1] https://www.nuclear-transparency-watch.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/NTW-Report.pdf
[2] https://www.nuclear-transparency-watch.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/NTW-Postition-paper.pdf