The distant origins of this issue remain unclear, a sign of the era in which it began. In the 1960s, the Franco regime pursued secretive waste accumulation, storing radioactive material in a disused uranium mine high in the Córdoba mountains. Spain’s first nuclear cemetery emerged from an uncontrolled operation in which hundreds of barrels of waste left over from tests by the former Nuclear Energy Board were stacked in the mine. The scandal only surfaced during Spain’s transition to democracy, uncovered by investigative journalism.
The initial answer was a temporary fix. By the mid-1980s, three industrial warehouses were built to house more than 700 barrels of radioactive waste taken from the old mine. The National Radioactive Waste Company, Enresa, then undertook the construction of a modern, purpose-built repository on the same land in the Cordoban mountain range, intended to be the final, long-term storage site.
In 1992, the El Cabril Storage Center began operation in the Sierra Albarrana. Three decades later it stands as an international reference in the nuclear sector. It stores medium, low, and very low radioactivity waste produced in Spain, with about 90 percent of the waste coming from nuclear power plants and smaller shares from hospitals, research centers, or industries.
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High levels of waste, including spent nuclear fuel, will continue to accumulate at power plants for decades until a large, deep geological repository is constructed. That project would store waste forever, but its design and location have not yet been finalized, and operation is not expected before 2073.
The El Cabril repository sits in northern Córdoba near where it meets Seville and Badajoz depots. Nestled in the Cordoban foothills of the Sierra Morena, the facility is distant from nearby towns. The town of Hornachuelos lies about 40 kilometers away, with similar distances to Peñarroya, Azuaga, and Fuente Obejuna. A few smaller towns are closer, roughly 20 kilometers away. The center spans about 35 hectares, set within a rural estate exceeding 1,100 hectares.
The location, at first glance, is not ideal given its distance from most Spanish nuclear plants. The nearest facility is Almaraz in Cáceres, about 250 kilometers away; Ascó, Vandellós, and Garoña lie roughly 800 kilometers away. Trucks carrying waste travel to El Cabril, with around 200 to 250 trips annually. Hosting a nuclear cemetery has long required a regional compromise, with Andalusia contributing waste dumps while other regions hosted power plants.
More than 80 percent are already full
El Cabril comprises three storage platforms: two for medium and low activity waste and one for very low activity waste. Each platform is designed with distinct handling and containment needs, using sealed transport containers and automated systems operated from distant control rooms. The medium and low activity area features dozens of concrete bays, each holding 320 concrete containers that house the waste barrels.
The very low activity waste space, operational since 2008, consists of two large white tent-like structures. Barrels and large rubble bags stack directly underneath, moved by cranes and handled without direct radiation exposure. These cells have substantial unused capacity, with a quarter of space currently in use and plans to add two more cells approved by the CSN.
Space for medium and low level waste presents a different challenge. One large platform with 16 cells is already full, while another with 12 cells is more than half used. In total, approximately 83 percent of the capacity for this waste category is occupied, containing over 36,000 cubic meters of radioactive residue as of the latest update.
Future expansion
To meet growing needs, El Cabril is preparing a major expansion that will nearly double capacity. A new platform for medium and low activity waste will add 27 cells to the existing 28. The goal is to accommodate waste generated by the planned dismantling of all Spanish nuclear plants. The government and electricity companies agree on a staged closure timeline between 2027 and 2035, which is expected to yield thousands of tonnes of new waste in the coming years. In 2023 alone, El Cabril anticipated receiving around 2,000 tonnes from the dismantling of an older facility.
Enresa seeks final government approval to fund the expansion, with an investment of 182 million euros proposed. The plan envisions a first phase with 12 new facilities, followed by 15 more cells, although exact deadlines for the second phase have not been set. The Sixth General Plan for Radioactive Waste, approved in 2006, already anticipated future expansions, and Enresa’s technicians estimated that current facilities would fill by 2028, necessitating growth. With added capacity, waste from dismantling may continue to arrive through the 2050s.
Under surveillance for 300 years
The long-term plan has always been for El Cabril to permanently contain waste, as Córdoba remains the sole definitive nuclear repository in central Spain. The objective is to restore the mountain landscape after dismantling, so the repository becomes invisible. Pilot tests planned for next year will explore drainage, waterproofing, and soil covering layers, while the effectiveness of insulation will be studied over several years before any full-scale lining is implemented.
Enresa awaits CSN approval for the pilot, a project that will use one completed cell as a test bed. It involves layered drainage, waterproofing, and a final soil cover to allow native vegetation to regrow. The study will inform whether to roll out full-scale lining across all facilities in the long term.
Radiological surveillance remains a core obligation. An environmental monitoring program analyzes samples of water, air, fauna, vegetation, and food produced nearby, with results compared against pre-operation baselines. In a typical year, more than a thousand samples are collected and analyzed by independent laboratories using dosimeters placed near the site. The aim is to monitor safety and ensure that environmental impact remains negligible.
As one official notes, a significant portion of the local workforce is drawn from nearby municipalities, underscoring the community connection to the center and its operations. The regional leadership acknowledges the importance of transparent monitoring while balancing the region’s energy needs and safety considerations, a sentiment echoed by local residents who have lived with the facility for decades, some of whom view it as a necessary compromise for energy reliability and environmental responsibility.