The current Spanish nuclear legislation has set the year 2073 as the reference year for the Definitive Warehouse of Radioactive Deposits to begin operating, which must house all the waste from the country’s nuclear power plants when they are no longer in operation.
What for the majority is a long term, does not seem to be so long term for those responsible for guaranteeing this infrastructure, as Juan Carlos Lentijo, president of the Nuclear Safety Council, explained this Tuesday during a meeting with journalists. “It may seem like there is a lot of time left, but if we want to arrive on time we have to start working on this process now,” he assured. The reason is that before the actual construction of the infrastructure, it requires broad social and political consensus in addition to the technical conditions. “Social consensus must be sought from now on by creating social structures as other countries have done and opening a social debate that must end in Parliament to reinforce a decision that needs the maximum possible consensus,” Lentijo claimed.
The manager works without taking into account any modification to the current calendar of nuclear plant closures contemplated in the seventh General Radioactive Waste Plan and which establishes starting with the closure of Almaraz in 2027 and staggered closures of the rest of the plants until 2035. “A very demanding schedule
The nuclear power plants in Spain will stop operating in 2035, with a phased closure from 2027 of its seven reactors still operational, in a process that will represent “a complicated challenge for the country, but addressable”, stated the president of the Nuclear Safety Council. (CSN), Juan Carlos Lentijo.
The manager recalled that Spain already took on the challenge of building these plants almost all at the same time more than 40 years ago, “and then the technological capabilities were much lower than today,” he recalled.
In fact, Lentijo has gone so far as to affirm that even the deadlines to safely address the closure do not have to be as set in stone as those established by law. That is to say, even if the owners of Almaraz do not request the closure of the plant at the end of November of this year, as established by regulation, the closure could be addressed with complete safety. “The time that the request is delayed could be gained with a stoppage of the plant’s activity, such as the one done for its maintenance at the end of its useful route, whether it is to reactivate its activity or what He finally decides it is his definitive break,” he comments.
In theory, the plants that have been closed so far have had an official request for closure three years before the date scheduled for the milestone and a final request one year before. “Deadlines that could vary to which we could adjust, always complying with all security requirements,” said the president of CSN:
Less than a week ago, Foro Nuclear (the lobby that defends the owners of nuclear power plants) raised the possibility that the closure schedule could be delayed. Among the reasons given for this was the economic impact that the increase in the Enresa rate (the company in charge of managing radioactive waste) has increased to exceed 11 euros per KWh produced.
In any case, Juan Carlos Lentijo has in mind that to address the closure of the seven active reactors that Spain currently has, the CSN will have to reorganize its staff to concentrate it where the most efforts will be required. At the moment, what is being worked on is analyzing whether or not to expand the Trillo nuclear power plant, which before the month of May must have an assessment on whether or not it can extend its life cycle for another ten years.
