§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she has taken to satisfy herself that(a) the normal emission levels from nuclear facilities on the northern coast of France and (b) the emergency procedures in place at nuclear facilities on the northern coast of France are consistent with proper protection of the UK environment. [84746]
§ Mr. Wilson[holding answer 3 December 2002]: Under Directive 96/29/Euratom, member states are required to ensure that discharges do not give rise to doses to members of the public which exceed the prescribed limits. The UK participates fully in the process through which these limits are determined. Each member state has an obligation for ensuring that these Euratom Community requirements are implemented in their national law, and for establishing facilities necessary to carry out continuous monitoring of the level of radioactivity in the air, water and soil. The European Commission has the task of ensuring compliance with these requirements and has specific powers under which it can verify the operation and efficiency of the monitoring equipment around nuclear sites. The UK Government have no reason to believe that the European Commission has not been assiduous in fulfilling its enforcement responsibilities in France, or indeed, anywhere else in the European Union.
In addition, under Article 37 of the Euratom Treaty, member states are required to submit general data to the European Commission relating to any plan for the disposal of radioactive waste so that the Commission can determine whether the plan is liable to result in radioactive contamination of the water, soil or airspace of another member state. France will have been required to submit such data to the Commission in respect of nuclear facilities on its northern coast and to satisfy the Commission that the disposal of waste from those facilities would not result in the radioactive contamination of any part of the United Kingdom.
It is the responsibility of each member state to ensure that the operations undertaken at the civil nuclear installations on its territory comply with the requirements of the Euratom Basic Safety Standards (Council Directive 96/29/Euratom), which includes requirements concerning emergency preparedness. Emergency preparedness requirements are also included under Article 16 of the Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) to which both France and the UK are contracting parties. As stated above, the European Commission is responsible for monitoring compliance with obligations under the Euratom Treaty. Contracting parties to the CNS are subject to a three-yearly peer review of their responses to the requirements of the Convention. Both the UK and France participated in the last peer review meeting which was held in April 2002.