The Additional Protocol in the European Union: A EURATOM Safeguards View on the Status of Preparation and Specific EU Issues

Three Additional Protocols will soon enter into force in the European Union. Their application will present a number of challenges because of the nature of the nuclear fuel cycle in Europe. This fuel cycle was established in the late fifties at a time when nuclear energy was seen as the main energy source for the future. The EURATOM Treaty of 1957 set up the European Atomic Energy Community and required the Community to create the conditions for the establishment and growth of nuclear industries. Far-reaching responsibilities were given to the European Commission in the areas of supply, safeguards and ownership of material. Over the years the nuclear technology became mature and many technological options that were investigated in nuclear research centres of the Member States or the Community were abandoned. Nuclear research programmes were phased out and entire nuclear centres were re-orientated towards non-nuclear technology. This evolution took place in an open, transparent and democratically controlled way, so that any clandestine activities, by states or sub-state groups, could not have gone un-noticed. The implementation of the Additional Protocol in the European Union is being prepared within the Institutional and technical environment as described above. Genuine concerns exist in many places that if the Additional Protocol is implemented to the letter, rather than to the spirit, a lot of unnecessary burden will be put upon the IAEA, the national and regional authorities and the operators. The paper describes how the preparation for the implementation of the additional protocol is being pursued in the EU and what solutions have been found to some of these specific European Union issues