Answer given by Mr Oettinger on behalf of the Commission

7.8.2014

1. In accordance with Article 20 of Commission Regulation 302/2005/Euratom on the application of Euratom safeguards, the Paks nuclear power plant, on the 13th June 2014, notified to the Safeguards Directorate of the European Commission Directorate General for Energy (copy to the Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority) its aim of exporting damaged fuel assemblies to the ‘Federal State Unitary Enterprise’ Mayak ‘Production Association’ at Ozyorsk, Russian Federation. The notification was based on Annex VI of the cited Regulation. It indicated June 2014 as the approximate date of dispatch and July 2014 as the expected date of the arrival. The means of declared transport was ‘train’ and the use ‘Reprocessing’.

In accordance with Article 16, paragraph 1, point (c) of Council Directive 2006/117/Euratom, Hungary shall inform the Commission how it came to a positive opinion that the Russian Federation has ‘the administrative and technical capacity and regulatory structure to manage the radioactive waste or spent fuel safely, as stated in the Joint Convention’. As this concerns an ex-post notification, to date, the Commission has not yet received this information.

2. The Commission is currently awaiting additional information to be provided by the Hungarian authorities. Therefore, the Commission is currently not in a position to comment on the compliance of said transport with Council Directive 2011/70/Euratom.

The Commission intends to closely follow-up this issue and take all measures necessary to ensure a correct application of Directive 2011/70/Euratom.