The nuclear power outage debate is trying to reopen from politics for now. The People’s Party, Vox and Ciudadanos have been advocating for months to review the planned shutdown schedule for all Spanish nuclear power plants, which will begin in 2027 and end in a total blackout in 2035. Amid the energy crisis, right-wing parties support extending the life of reactors as a way to promote Spain’s future energy dominance and remind other European countries that they are reconsidering shutting down their nuclear power plants.
The government categorically refuses to reconsider planned dates for future closures, claiming that it will not serve to confront the energy emergency the country is facing due to the current crisis (first closure is scheduled within five years). Emphasizing that the closures are the result of the agreement reached three years ago with the electricity companies that own the nuclear power plants, Prof.
From Enresa, the public company responsible for nuclear waste management and reactor dismantling, none of the utilities showed any interest in delaying the closures was planned.
“No electricity company has the will to change the protocol for the closing schedule of the power plants. No one directly or indirectly communicated this in our meetings, nor did they tell it to the public,” he said. President of Enresa, Joseph Louis Navarro, during his appearance in the Ecological Transition Commission of the Congress of Deputies. “The joint will of the Government and companies is needed to change the closing program. The government doesn’t want it and neither do companies as far as I know.”
In 2019, the government agreed with major power companies on a program to phase out all Spanish power plants, which would result in a total nuclear power outage in the country. agreement with Endesa, Iberdrola, naturalness and EDP It envisions the gradual closure of factories between 2027 and 2035.
As the head of Enresa underlined, since the signing of the agreement with the electricity companies, six of the seven active reactors in Spain (excluding the Trillo plant) have requested license renewals, seeking to extend their useful life under the agreement with the electricity companies. the periods that are strictly stipulated in the protocol and that indicate a renewal”last and last”. “They couldn’t, but they did,” he convicted.
profitability problem
Enresa’s chairman points out that no company has shown much less interest in making major new investments to extend the life of existing plants, and for new plants. “The discussion is not about economic, technical feasibility.. Facilities can continue to operate for longer from a technical standpoint, but with large investments to refurbish them.
Navarro said that the boards of owner companies should evaluate whether it is profitable to operate for many more years. “Companies don’t get numbers”, projected that the generation costs of nuclear power plants, including certain taxes, are higher than the estimates of electricity sales prices reflecting the futures markets in the medium term.
The nuclear industry has persistently criticized the tax burdens the power plants carry to operate and therefore the generation costs are around 60 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) and would be around 45 euros per MWh without taxes (excluding the Enresa rate). predicts much lower electricity prices for futures markets 2030 or 2035. “And that doesn’t include the new investments that would have to be made if the lifetimes of the facilities were to be extended.”
Electric companies pay a rate 7.98 Euros per MWh The amount of electricity produced, which is saved in a fund managed by Enresa to finance waste management and future dismantling of reactors. “This inheritance is not a tax, it is the application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle. And pay as it’s produced,” explained Navarro.
Faced with pressure from right-wing political groups to revise the nuclear power plant shutdown schedule, major energy companies avoided direct confrontation with the government and did not openly engage in discussions about plant life extensions. In recent months, President of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán pointed out that nuclear ones are “ready to work as hard as necessary”, but warned that this will “require more investment and costs to be compensated for”. José Bogas, CEO of Endesa“This shouldn’t be a problem” if nuclear power plant shutdowns need to be delayed for “four or five years” to ensure CO2 emissions reduction targets.
Autonomous Communities don’t want the repository
The government started the update process. General Radioactive Waste Plan (PGRR), A long-term roadmap of how to manage waste, how to decommission nuclear power plants, and how much it will cost to do all that. The Ministry of Ecological Transition’s proposal envisions two alternatives for what to do with nuclear waste over the next 60 years: pursuing the project of building a single central nuclear cemetery or setting up seven warehouses in Spain, one at each nuclear power plant. from the country.
In recent months, Enresa has publicly chosen to build a single nuclear cemetery as the most economically, environmentally and socially advantageous option. The problem with site selection is the need to reach a social, political and institutional compromise and how to overcome the reluctance of governments and populations to live with nuclear waste. And currently no regional government is willing to host a central temporary warehouse (ATC) in its territory.
“No autonomous community wants to have ATC. This is a fact,” Navarro said, noting that no area to host a nuclear cemetery has been opened during the application process for the new PGRR. “Can it be executed? Can it be done with a finger?”, wondered about the possibility of forcing an autonomous community to welcome it.
The Government of Pedro Sánchez, who recently arrived in Moncloa, crippled the project to build a central nuclear warehouse in Moscow. Villar de Canas, in Cuenca and thinks it’s denied to start over. If the last option chosen was to build a single warehouse for all the facilities’ waste, the Manager would have to look for another alternative location.