‘spent fuel’ means nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in and permanently removed from a reactor core; spent fuel may either be considered as usable resource that can be reprocessed or be destined for final disposal with no further use foreseen and treated as radioactive waste.

In my opinion, they should make known their reasons why Member States should deal with the disposal of nuclear spent fuel themselves, without allowing radioactive waste or spent fuel to be exported outside the Union for reprocessing or disposal.

Has the Commission already made an assessment and if not, will it undertake an immediate comparative assessment of the details of radioactive effluents and emissions released respectively from the Sellafield nuclear waste and fuel processing plant, operated by BNFL in the UK, and the La Hague nuclear waste and fuel processing plant, operated by COGEMA in France, as published in the Commission Radiation Protection Report 127, Radioactive effluents from nuclear power stations and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the European Union, 1995-1999, and the report prepared for the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Programme ( ...[+++]STOA) on 'Possible Toxic Effects from the Nuclear Reprocessing Plants at Sellafield (UK) and Cap de la Hague (France)', published in December 2001 and November 2001 respectively?

Has the Commission already made an assessment and if not, will it undertake an immediate comparative assessment of the details of radioactive effluents and emissions released respectively from the Sellafield nuclear waste and fuel processing plant, operated by BNFL in the UK, and the La Hague nuclear waste and fuel processing plant, operated by COGEMA in France, as published in the Commission Radiation Protection Report 127, Radioactive effluents from nuclear power stations and nuclear fuel reprocessing plants in the European Union, 1995-1999, and the report prepared for the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Programme ( ...[+++]STOA) on 'Possible Toxic Effects from the Nuclear Reprocessing Plants at Sellafield (UK) and Cap de la Hague (France)', published in December 2001 and November 2001 respectively?

The Commission is proposing to help establish a high level of nuclear safety in the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste in the Member States, in order to protect public health and the environment.

Furthermore, the Directive should exclude certain mediums for the disposal of nuclear waste, such as disposal at sea or in space and should prohibit the export of nuclear waste or spent nuclear fuel to third countries.