The government seeks guidance to generate returns and invest in a billionaire fund that preserves the rates paid by public authorities to finance the future decommissioning of nuclear power plants. National Radioactive Waste Corporation (Enresa) launched a public tender last March to hire a specialized financial advisory service to pursue more sophisticated investments in what is described as a nuclear piggy bank, now valued at about 7.5 billion euros.
The tender appeared poised to be awarded a few weeks ago. International Financial Analysts (AFI) competed intensely, delivering a strong bid. Yet a legal challenge from another applicant who was excluded during the process halted the competition. In the dispute, Enresa faced removal from the selection for submitting an offer deemed economically unsound as “abnormally low.”
ICapital has challenged its exclusion before the Central Administrative Contract Appeals Court, the body responsible for resolving disputes in public procurement under the Ministry of Finance. The ruling resulted in an automatic suspension of processing of a major contract for the state-owned company as described in the official tender documents.
Earn money from the billionaire fund
Spain maintains a billion euro piggy bank funded by fees from entities that generate radioactive waste, notably electricity producers that own nuclear plants. The fund is intended for dismantling retired reactors and establishing storage facilities for radioactive waste. It currently sits around 7.5 billion euros.
Each nuclear plant continues to contribute to this fund as long as it generates electricity, with closures projected between 2027 and 2035. The piggy bank is designed so that funds are not disbursed until the plant closures are complete and the planned seven temporary warehouses plus a large permanent repository are in place at each site. The state plans to allocate a significant portion of these investments to the fund, officially known as the Financing Fund for the General Plan for Radioactive Waste Operations (PGRR).
Enresa oversees the management of this fund, financing electricity companies through their rates and making strategic investments with the accumulated capital under the supervision of the Ministry for Ecological Transformation. Enresa has begun seeking expert support to invest in increasingly complex markets and to execute more advanced operations aimed at achieving appropriate profitability.
Seeking more complex investments
Enresa opened the tender for a consultancy services contract with a budget of around two hundred thousand euros to begin guiding financial investments for the next two years. The contract contemplates about one hundred seventy-seven thousand five hundred euros every two years, with extensions possible up to approximately four hundred forty-six thousand euros.
Enresa reports a portfolio of financial assets valued at six thousand five hundred fifty-one million euros at the end of the previous year, following investments totaling more than two billion euros the year before, according to the company’s internal data. In the years ahead, the growth of the portfolio will push the group to pursue new opportunities.
For years Enresa followed a conservative approach to financial management, prioritizing safety and reliable income. Funds were primarily directed to public fixed income through Treasury securities, alongside debt from large European and Spanish corporations that carried substantial asset concentration. Inflation in Europe has been a factor, and while returns remained steady, the market has shifted toward more complex instruments that require expert guidance. This evolution has driven Enresa to seek specialized financial insight to navigate an increasingly sophisticated investment landscape.