The public company that is in charge of radioactive waste says that building a single facility is better “economically, environmentally and socially” than the option of seven warehouses, one in each plant
The Government has launched the process to update the General Radioactive Waste Plan, the long-term roadmap on how to manage waste, how to dismantle nuclear power plants and how much it will cost to do it all. The proposal of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition contemplates two alternatives on what to do with nuclear waste during the next 60 years: maintain the project of building a single centralized nuclear cemetery or install seven warehouses throughout Spain, one in each of the nuclear power plants from the country.
Enresa, the public company in charge of managing all these nuclear waste management works, openly defends that the most advantageous option in all areas is to build a single nuclear graveyard for all the radioactive waste produced in Spain. An option that is also the one defended by the electricity companies that operate the nuclear power plants.
“The option of a centralized temporary warehouse (ATC) continues to be economically, environmentally and socially the best solution & rdquor ;, has sentenced the Chairman of Enresa, José Luis Navarro this Monday at an informative breakfast at the New Economy Forum. “And the best solution would be for the ATC to be located in an environment that is already nuclear & rdquor ;, he pointed out. That is, in the vicinity of one of the current nuclear power plants.
The problem in choosing the location is the need to achieve a social, political and institutional consensus and how to overcome the reluctance of the population to live with nuclear waste. “An ATC cannot be done against the territory. There are candidate municipalities that show their willingness to accept it if there is consensus”, has indicated the president of Enresa, who, however, points out the problem with the “middle link & rdquor; that are the governments of the autonomous communities to reach that consensus for their refusal or at least their reservations to host such an installation.
“It is a State matter and it must be a State decision”, Navarro stressed in relation to how many warehouses to use to store radioactive waste for the next decades. “If we are not capable of having a State vision, we will have to have seven warehouses. But at Enresa we think that an ATC would be better”. In any case, the president of the public company stresses that both building a single nuclear graveyard or seven warehouses “are equally safe options.”
2.1 billion difference
The Government appeals to the search for social, political and within the energy sector consensus and, therefore, leaves both options open: a single cemetery (centralized temporary warehouse or ATC) that should be ready in 2030 or a warehouse in each plant (decentralized temporary warehouses or ATD). The two alternatives are maintained, despite the fact that creating a network of seven warehouses would cost 2,100 million euros more, according to the Executive’s own estimates. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has opened a public consultation process on the draft of the PGRR in search of precisely that consensus.
Government estimates contemplate that what it will cost to dismantle all nuclear power plants and the long-term management of all waste will amount to 24,435 million (if a single central cemetery is built) or 26,560 million (if one opts for the seven warehouses spread across Spain). Amounts that are financed by the operators themselves with contributions to a fund through the payment of specific rates for the production of nuclear energy or for managing radioactive material.
The companies with interests in the nuclear sector (the large electricity companies and dozens of related industrial companies) demand a single waste cemetery in Spain, which is the plan that had been maintained for years by successive governments. And they also ask the Government that the location of the centralized cemetery be chosen looking for it to be close to the location where a cemetery will finally have to be built. deep geological repository (DGA), that it will store the waste forever and that the Government’s plan aims to have it operational in 2073.
Enresa already prepared in 2020 a first proposal to approve a new PGRR. At that time, the company preferred to build a single centralized warehouse that should be operational in 2028 (a deadline that was already impossible to meet), although it left the door open to building several warehouses in different locations. His forecast then was that the cost of waste management would be 23,044 million euros throughout the century.
Spain has to face a decision on the storage of waste with sufficient time in view of the blackout of all the plants. “Enresa cannot move forward with hypothetical or desirable solutions, but with real solutions & rdquor ;, Navarro warned. The Government agreed with the large electricity companies on a schedule for the progressive closure of all Spanish plants between 2027 and 2035 which will lead to the total nuclear blackout in the country. The Government’s plans are to maintain the gradual and staggered closure of the seven Spanish reactors now operational, agreed in 2019 with Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy and EDP.
The Villa de Cañas project
The Government of Pedro Sánchez, recently arrived in Moncloa, paralyzed the project to build a centralized nuclear warehouse in Villar de Cañas, in Cuenca, and considers it ruled out to resume it. If the option finally chosen is to build a single warehouse for the waste from all the plants, the Executive would have to look for another alternative location.
The Executive resigned to continue with the option of Villar de Cañas for the technical problems and the huge additional costs that would require overcoming them, especially due to doubts about the quality of the land, which the technicians of the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) and independent studies have already warned about.
The construction of a temporary storage facility for nuclear waste is already enormously behind schedule. The original plan contemplated having it ready by the end of 2018. But more than a decade after the Council of Ministers designated the municipality of Villar de Cañas to install the nuclear cemetery, there is still no warehouse. The Villar de Cañas City Council continues to be willing to host an ATC for all waste in Spain, while the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha flatly rejects the project.