Inventory of nuclear liabilities - The Belgian perspective

Like all countries that use radioactive materials for producing electricity or for other peaceful purposes, Belgium is faced with an important challenge: the safe management of all these materials, in both the short and long term. Of course there is a price to pay for this management, which in accordance with the ethical principle of inter-generational fairness should be borne mainly by the current generations. However, it is possible that when the moment has come, the financial resources to cover the costs of decommissioning and remediation of these installations, prove to be insufficient or even completely non-existent: this then results in a nuclear liability. This kind of situation can have several causes, such as an underestimation of the actual costs by the operator or the owner of the nuclear installation or by the holder or the owner of the radioactive materials, negligence, transfer of ownership of the nuclear installation or the nuclear site without transfer of the corresponding provisions, a reduction in the operating time, a bankruptcy as well as ignorance. Because it wishes to avoid the occurrence of new nuclear liabilities, the Belgian legislator, by virtue of article 9 of the programme law of 12.12.97, charged ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, with collecting all the elements that are necessary in order to examine to which degree the decommissioning and remediation costs can be actually covered when the time comes. ONDRAF/NIRAS was specifically charged with ascertaining all facts of a technical and financial nature which should enable the minister responsible for energy to verify whether every operator or owner of a nuclear installation and every holder or owner of radioactive materials have provided in time for the requisite financial resources to cover the future costs of decommissioning and remediation. This evaluation of course also serves to enable the government to take the necessary corrective measures in time in order to deal with any shortcomings and thus avoid the occurrence of new nuclear liabilities. This new assignment, the inventory of the nuclear liabilities, its official legal name, consists of locating and inventorying the installations and sites where radioactive materials are present, and evaluating the situation in order to develop a policy that offers the requisite financial guarantees for safety in the long term. More specifically, the legislator asks ONDRAF/NIRAS to: - establish a register of the localisation and the state of all nuclear installations and all sites that contain radioactive materials; - estimate the costs of their decommissioning and remediation; - evaluate the existence and adequacy of the provisions for financing these future or current operations; - update this register on a five-yearly basis. To carry out this assignment, ONDRAF/NIRAS has developed a goal-oriented, functional and flexible operational model. The technical register of the present radioactive materials and the installations and sites that contain radioactive materials is intended as input for a cost calculation model that is based on a number of management scenarios which generate the costs on the output side for the management of the present radioactive materials and for decommissioning and remediation of installations and sites that contain radioactive materials. This is subsequently compared with an expert evaluation of the availability and adequacy of the financial resources to cover the costs in question. In addition to the costs that are not currently covered, the inventory exercise has highlighted a number of weak points that may threaten the availability and sufficiency of the financial means built up. To fill these gaps, corrective measures are required for which the initiative should be taken by the minister in charge. After five years collaboration between ONDRAF/NIRAS and the operators of nuclear installations and holders of radioactive substances, the government today has at its disposal a first general overview available of the financing mechanisms intended to cover the future costs of the decommissioning and remediation in Belgium, including the costs of long-term management of radioactive waste. The report on the inventory of the nuclear liabilities contains all useful elements that should make it possible for the government to take a number of necessary measures to consolidate the means acquired and to fill those gaps identified. In this way it will guarantee the Belgian citizen that the necessary financial means will be available to manage the radioactive substances present in Belgium safely, both in the short and long term