will be the first nuclear power station in closing, although it has already eleven years standing The ministry for ecological transition gives the green light, one week before 23J, to the dismantling of Santa Maria de Garonacentral that was disconnected from the electrical network at the end of 2012, when its owner, Nuclenor, decided not to continue exploiting it. Budgeted at 475 million euros, the demolition – which was approved in May by the Nuclear Safety Council – is expected to end in 2033 and in it they will work up to 350 people simultaneously, as reported by the Ministry for Ecological transition.
Located in the Tobalina Valley (Burgos), Garoña was inaugurated in 1971 with an installed capacity of 466 megawatts (MW). In July 2013, the definitive cessation of exploitationbut since it was not due to reasons of nuclear safety or radiological protection, Nuclenor submitted an application for authorization renewal in May 2014, which in August 2017 was denied by the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda. At that moment the National Radioactive Waste Company (Enresa) began the preparatory work and to design the dismantling project.
“It’s an example of what actually shouldn’t happen again. how the lord Mariano Rajoy announced to great fanfare, against the reports, that he would keep it open and how afterwards they had a period of uncertainty very long on whether it was profitable or not and what were the investments required to keep it open. The conditions set by the Nuclear Safety Council to guarantee the operational safety were rejected by the company that owns it and the closure ended up being declared”, defended the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in an electoral key in an attention to the media after a breakfast organized by New Economy Forum this Monday.
He People’s Party defends in his electoral program to study a possible extension of the nuclear power plants that remain open, while the PSOE rules out any modification to the closure schedule ordered between 2027 and 2035 agreed with Enresa and the power companies that own the plants.
Two phases
Be that as it may, the Garoña dismantling project is a fact and consists of Two phasesas reported by the Ministry for Ecological transition. In the first, which covers from next year until 2026the systems, structures and components of the turbine building, and the system modifications and facilities necessary for the waste management resulting. At the same time, the fuel spent since the pool until the Individualized Temporary Warehouse (ATI) of the central.
In the second part of the process, which will take from 2027 to 2033 and with the fuel in the temporary warehouse, the final demolition of the radiological buildingscontinuing with the decontamination, declassification and demolitions, to finally conclude with the restoration of the location.
The authorization of the Ministry directed by Teresa Ribera comes after the project was submitted to public information between March and April 2021 and that the Plenary session of the Nuclear Safety Council issued the mandatory report favorable last May and after having obtained the Environmental Impact Declaration that establishes the conditions to which the project must comply. It only remains to transfer the ownership of the Nuclenor plant to Enresasomething that will happen in the next few days, so that they can start the works on the terrain.
just transition
“For all these years there has been no no investment that allowed to search economic alternatives for the Tobalina valley, which is why we included the valley in the Just Transition process. Unlike the rest of the countries, we are the only ones that have included those counties where one was closed nuclear power station which was the fundamental nucleus and the most important center of economic activity for the area”, added Ribera in his attention to the media.
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In 2020, the Institute for Just Transition (ITJ), under the Ministry for Ecological Transition, began working in the 27 municipalities where an impact on employment and income has been identified after the closing from the center In May 2021, MITECO, the Junta de Castilla y León; the Basque Government and the municipalities –through the FEMP and AMAC– signed the Action Protocol for the elaboration of the Garoña Just Transition Agreement due to the closure of the plant.
And 7.7 million euros have been awarded to 12 municipal projects to reactivate the area, charged to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. These are projects of a “socio-sanitary nature, tourism promotion, property rehabilitation, environmental restoration and biomass management”, as reported by the department headed by Teresa Ribera, which adds that they are “working” on a ” new call” for this type of project, in addition to processing “lines of aid to companies and small investment projects, which will be resolved at the end of the year”.