Press release - October 28, 2010
Brussels, International — The European Commission presents its proposals for a new Euratom directive on nuclear waste on 3 November 2010.
Member states should be aware that this sub-standard directive has significant omissions.
Greenpeace supporters lit more than 2000 candles to spell out their feelings on the eve of the 24th Chernobyl anniversary. In Brussels, Greenpeace delivered nuclear waste to the European Parliament to alert MEPs to the substandard draft directive being announced next week.
The danger is that countries invest heavily in deep disposal sites for highly dangerous radioactive waste which fail, with costly financial and environmental results. Greenpeace welcomes some areas of increased transparency in the document, but urges parliament to speak out and member states to revise its many failings.
Greenpeace EU dirty energy campaigner Jan Haverkamp said: "This proposal is little more than a PR exercise to try and persuade Europeans that nuclear waste can be dealt with. What we need is a serious attempt to reduce the burden radioactive waste is putting on future generations and the environment.
"It would take an engineering genius to safely bury white hot, highly-dangerous nuclear waste deep underground for longer than mankind has been on the planet. There are gaps in the science and no disposal site currently exists, yet the Commission is claiming this is a proven method. We fear a disposal facility could rupture high level nuclear waste into the water table for a hundreds of thousands of years."
Haverkamp has carried out a concise overview of the proposal, available below.