BRUSSELS, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- New EU proposals for member states to bury their nuclear waste deep underground also would forbid its overseas export, officials said.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger defended the draft plan announced Wednesday as a necessary measure to enforce International Atomic Energy Agency safety standards.
"If an accident happens in one country, it can have devastating effects also in others," he said in Brussels.
Fourteen EU member states currently operate nuclear power plants.
The proposal could pose a problem for some EU countries that lack the suitable geological substrate for underground burial, EUobserver reported.
Oettinger said he was confident EU member states would adopt the plan even though similar legislation has been rejected in the past.
"Today the acceptance is much higher than in the past," he said. "We don't want to export nuclear waste to third countries, frequently with lower safety standards. That cheap solution is out of the question."
Russia is one country that stands to lose if the new requirements are approved, as it currently does a lucrative business in importing nuclear waste for burial in Siberia.
A number of African countries have expressed an interest in developing similar schemes, EUobserver said.
