The nuclear power plant of Garoña (Burgos), the oldest of the Spanish NPPs, is in fact a hostage of its owner Enterprise Nuclenor (owned itself by the large enterprises ENDESA and Iberdrola). Garoña, whose reactor is identical to the number one of Fuskushima Dai-ichi, has been used by the Spanish nuclear lobby to press on the Government. The first part of this struggle, until December 2012, was public and Nuclenor used Garoña to try to stop the new Law on Fiscal Measures that introduced a tax on the spent fuel of the Spanish nuclear power plants. The amount of this tax could be of the order of 1.6 c€ per kWh. As it was ordered by the European Commission, the tax was not modified and therefore, Nuclenor decided to stop the plant and to put all the uranium into the pool on December 28th 2012. So Garoña is now stopped and with all the fuel in pool.
The second part of the argument has been hidden and the citizens have had no information on the discussions. We do know that the Industry Minister is preparing a new law to ordering the electrical system but we do not know if any of the proposals of the large Spanish electrical enterprises is taken into account. It is clear, nevertheless, that something has happened since Nuclenor surprisingly asked the Minister to keep Garoña “frozen” during one more year, waiting for the possibility of restarting the plant. This happened on May 24th only one month and ten days before the definitive closure of Garoña. The MinIster Soria decides to pass directly the request to the Spanish Regulator, the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN, Nuclear Safety xxx Counseill). The CSN suffers an enormous pressure from the nuclear lobby during those days and in the end approves a prorogation of Garoña for 1 year. The xxx Counselors Rosario Velasco and Cristina Narbona, proposed by PSOE, voted against the prolongation of the NPP, while Fernando Martí and Fernando Castelló, proposed by the PP, and Antonio Gurgí, proposed by CiU, voted for the prolongation.
These facts make a huge damage on the image of the CSN, since it appears as a simple puppet that is able to approve a request in a very short time under the pressure of the nuclear enterprises. Moreover, the CSN gives a new type of authorization to keep the plant in its present status, with the fuel in the pool, but without starting the decommissioning. It is remarkable that the main spokes men from Iberdrola, ENDESA and Unesa have been making public declarations in the sense that Garoña cannot stop or the investments of these enterprises will move from Spain to other countries like USA if they are not guaranteed by the new law under preparation. The CSN appear ready to accept the schedule imposed by the nuclear lobby. At the European level, the situation is even worse, since the EC ant the other regulators are looking closely what happens in Spain.
Once the CSN has given its permission, the Government has only to issue an Order that allows Nuclenor to ask fot the prolongation of the life of Garoña. This should have been published before June 6th, that is the last day to start studying the documents issued by the CSN to procedd to the definitive stop of Garoña. Strange things happened again, since the Government did not publish such an order!
So the CSN sent the documents related to the closure of the plant. And only a very strange and scandalous legal maneuver by the Government could avoid the definitive closure of Garoña.
We have a strange contradictory feeling now. On the one side, we are happy since we are closer and closer of the end of this dangerous nuclear poser plant. On the other hand we have seen how the nuclear lobby is able to modify the Government decisions and to press strongly on the regulators. In the mean time, the environment, the workers of the plant and the population have been forgotten and not taken into account in the debate. We would like to start thinking of a future development of the area without Garoña.
Francisco Castejón (Ecologistas en Acción, Spain)
