Link to the study - European Parliament - Europa

Policy Department D: Budgetary Affairs
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1. INTRODUCTION AND TASKS
As part of the process of their EU accession Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia committed to shutdown
some specific nuclear reactor units in their countries. The EU committed to support the accessing
countries in resolving the burden and challenges of the shutdown of these reactor units, including
support in restructuring the energy sectors concerned and in decommissioning and dismantling.
In order to make the support practicable three specific international decommissioning support funds
(IDSF) were established, which are administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD). These IDSFs are replenished by contributions, the EU being the main donor.
Three decommissioning support funds were initiated and a considerable amount of donor money has
been spent. The European Commission, as a major donor, contributed its part to the funds. The EBRD
took over the role of ensuring that the money was spent for the designated tasks.
In 2011, the European Court of Auditors assessed the effectiveness of the EU funded programmes
1999-2010 and identified several serious deficiencies (ECoA 2011).
Following the report the Budgetary Control Committee of the European Parliament, in charge of
scrutiny of EU expenditure, decided to commission Öko-Institute with an independent assessment of
the decommissioning process. The assessment’s remit was to identify best practices in
decommissioning nuclear reactors in Europe, to compare these with the practices in the three
countries and to derive recommendations from this comparison. We hereby present the report of our
findings.
The report is structured as follows:
Chapter 2 sets out key characteristics of the decommissioning of nuclear reactors in Europe and
the technical, economical and organisational aspects that play a role in those projects.
Chapter 3 outlines current practices in France, the UK and Germany and examines best practices
in detail using the example of Energiewerke Nord GmbH (EWN) in Greifswald/Germany.
Chapter 4 describes and evaluates practices in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia.
Chapter 5 provides an overview of the evaluation results, displays those results in the form of
country profiles and presents the conclusions and recommendations of this study.
The preparation of this study was only possible with the assistance and close support of numerous
organisations. We would like to thank for their support:
By answering our questions,
Providing supporting documents and background information,
Giving us the opportunity to discuss our issues in a very open and frank manner,
Opening doors so that we could visit facilities,
Providing excellent framework conditions for all this.
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