The third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, reported this Wednesday that her ministry has put out to public consultation the Royal Decree modifying the ‘Enresa rate’, which includes a price of 10 .32 euros per megawatt/hour (MWh), an increase of 30% compared to the current rate that the electricity companies that own the nuclear power plants have to pay to the public company for waste management.
With this rate, the companies that own the nuclear power plants cover the management of radioactive waste from spent fuel from nuclear power plants carried out by the public company Enresa.
The Ministry’s new proposal represents a reduction of 10 percentage points compared to the one initially proposed, which set the rate at 11.14 euros/MWh and which was withdrawn due to allegations, among them from the nuclear sector, which requested more time to study the text.
“What have we done? We have made, I believe, a great effort and we have also been beneficiaries of the excellent management that Enresa is doing,” said Ribera, who specified that until now the rate has allowed the accumulation of the fund more than 8,000 million euros and that the proposed update now represents almost 3 euros less than what was recommended in the 2018 expert commission report drawn up when the PSOE came to government.
For Ribera, waste management through Enresa “is the most efficient model available.” “In France this management is much more expensive, because each owner has to take care of his waste, while here this common system reduces costs,” she assured.
In this sense, he has also pointed out that it is easier to manage waste in those municipalities where work has been done for a long time with a nuclear plant, than not to look for a site, a different location.
In this way, it has indicated that the VII General Waste Plan (PGR) has ruled out the construction of a Centralized Temporary Warehouse (ATC) planned in Villar de Cañas (Cuenca) and contemplates the construction of seven individualized temporary warehouses in each of the (ATD), which, according to the nuclear sector, represents “extra costs that they are not willing to assume.”
The vice president has also stressed that the calendar for closing nuclear power plants by 2035 is a calendar in which all companies that own nuclear power plants participate and are committed.
“My impression is that it is a very good calendar for Spain, for the Spanish people, for the owners of the plants, for the electrical system and for the enormous professionals in the nuclear sector in Spain,” he assured. Asked if there will be no nuclear power plants in Spain in 2035, the minister stressed that this is her “impression”.
