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RWMAC's Report on: Radioactive Waste Management Practices in Spain

Press Release:
17 September 1998

The Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee (RWMAC) today publishes a report on radioactive waste management practices in Spain. The RWMAC advises the United Kingdom Government on matters relating to the management of civil radioactive waste. In the past few years, the Committee has studied radioactive waste management in a number of overseas countries*. First hand knowledge of practices different to those in the UK is considered to be an important aspect of the RWMAC's advisory role.

The RWMAC comments that Spain has simpler arrangements for radioactive waste disposal than the UK with all low level waste and short-lived intermediate level waste being disposed of to the EI Cabril near-surface disposal facility which opened in 1992. Any decision concerning a deep geological repository for other forms of radioactive waste has been postponed until 2010. The Spanish may consciously decide to seek to enshrine site selection procedures for this second repository into national legislation. This is something that the RWMAC has been advocating for the UK in order to give the repository development process more backbone than it has had in the past.

During the visit the Committee was impressed by the example of the well managed radioactive waste disposal facility located at EI Cabril and the development of well-formulated plans for disposal of high level radioactive waste, including spent fuel, based upon a methodical and broad-based generic research programme.

In Spain, in contrast to the UK, the funding of radioactive waste management is provided principally from a percentage charge on the electricity rate rather than directly from the nuclear industry. The national radioactive waste management company, ENRESA**, is therefore perceived as being more independent of the industry than its equivalent in this country, UK Nirex Ltd, although its funding arrangement clearly does not tally fully with the 'polluter pays' principle.

The RWMAC also commends the policy of publishing safety guidelines (Guias de Seguridad) by the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (Consejo de Securidad Nuclear) which give recommendations on how facility owners can meet their legal obligations and demonstrate compliance with national legislation. The combination of openness, helpful advice and flexibility, while still retaining legal enforcement, has much to commend it as a regulatory approach. The public availability of guidance on the way discharge authorisations are determined is something that the RWMAC has supported for many years.

* Previous studies include the Czech Republic and Slovakia (1993), France (1994), Sweden and Finland (1996) and Switzerland (1997).

** Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos S.A (ENRESA) is a public sector company set up in 1984 with responsibility for managing low, intermediate and high level radioactive waste, decommissioning of radioactive facilities, and restoration of former uranium mines.

Notes to Editors

The independent Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee was set up in response to a recommendation of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's Sixth Report on Nuclear Power and the Environment. Its terms of reference are:

"To advise the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions , and the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales on the technical and environmental implications of major issues concerning the development and implementation of an overall policy for all aspects of the management of civil radioactive waste, including research and development; and on any such matters referred to it by the Secretaries of State."

The Chairman of the RWMAC is Sir Gordon Beveridge, former President and Vice-Chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast.

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