Tamás Fellegi, Hungarian minister for national development, gave his support to European Commission plans to adopt a directive on nuclear waste management in the first half of 2011.
The European Commission will table a draft directive in October, an EU official confirmed.
Speaking at a Budapest conference entitled 'Nuclear Energy in Europe: From Acceptance to Ownership', Fellegi said his country was ready to take up the challenge and conclude negotiations on the directive with the EU's 26 other member states and the European Parliament.
The event was organised by French think-tank Confrontations Europe.
The Hungarian official labelled the directive "one of the major challenges" in the field of nuclear energy for the Hungarian EU Presidency.
In 2003, an initial attempt to put in place a nuclear waste directive turned into a fiasco, as member states rejected the Commission's proposal.
The Commission now wants to opt for legislation on a new basis by obliging all installations that produce nuclear waste to develop long-term waste management plans.
Radioactive waste does not come from nuclear power plants alone, but is also generated by medical equipment, for example. Currently, the only viable disposal solution is to bury such waste underground, speakers at the forum said. Commission representatives specified that isolated concrete bunkers were the best way of resolving the problem.
However, in a letter to the conference, EU Energy Commissioner Günther Öettinger pointed out that until now, only Sweden and Finland – and to some extent France – had been able to show good examples, but their projects will only be finalised in 2025.
Fellegi said the construction of similar chambers are underway in Hungary and that they would be completed by 2012.
"The recent developments in the Hungarian nuclear energy programme, the prolongation of the operational periods of the current [nuclear] blocks and the expansion of the existing power plant shows us how important it is to manage nuclear waste," he said.
Besides the Nuclear Waste Management Directive, Hungary will also have to deal with the review of the Radiation Protection Directive. The European Commission tabled its proposal last August. The overall objective is to protect the health of exposed workers and members of the public from the dangers of ionising radiation resulting from radiation or the use of radioactive substances, such as medical and industrial applications, as well as from the nuclear fuel cycle.
"The Nuclear Waste Management Directive and the Radiation Protection Directive are the biggest challenges for the Hungarian Presidency in the nuclear field," Fellegi stressed.
'Nuclear Renaissance'
Nuclear energy is living its Renaissance and Europe cannot allow itself to be left behind, argued Dominique Ristori, deputy director general at the European Commission's energy directorate. He pointed out that China is planning to build approximately 25 nuclear power plants this year, and that 61 new plants were being built worldwide.
"Enhancing the nuclear sector is much more important today than 25 years ago. It is time for Europe to take advantage and profit from the situation," he said.
Only a handful of the conference participants were from the ranks of those opposed to nuclear energy. Unsurprisingly, the main messages coming out of the forum were that nuclear is a clean resource as its CO2 emissions are limited, and that in contrast to fossil fuels, nuclear energy can help restrain price volatility.
"70% of the EU's low-emission energy comes from nuclear today," Fellegi said, wrapping up the debate. "Fifteen member states use nuclear energy and 148 power plants are in operation. Nuclear energy is a resource which contributes to energy security and compensates price volatility," he added.
