· The Iberian Antinuclear Movement (MIA), of which Ecologists in Action is a member, warns that extending the authorisation of the Almaraz and Vandellós nuclear power plants would be a very high-risk decision, as they are clearly ageing and have degraded safety.
· Ecologists in Action and the other organizations that make up the MIA point out that there has been an evident lack of participation and public debate in the process of renewing these plants.
· To this end, they have sent a letter to Teresa Ribera urging her to put the protection of the future for citizens before the financial balance sheets of the large energy companies, and to deny the renewal of the operating permits for the Almaraz and Vandellós II power plants.
Around fifty representatives of different organisations, including Ecologistas en Acción, which make up the Iberian Antinuclear Movement (MIA), are asking Minister Teresa Ribera in Madrid not to renew the authorisation for the Almaraz and Vandellós nuclear power plants. To this end, they have held a symbolic rally in front of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and have sent a letter to the minister.
In this letter they recall that, last April, the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) gave the green light to the renewal of the operating permits for the Almaraz nuclear power plants, and a few weeks later, to that of Vandellós II. These facilities exceed their design life during the period of renewal of the authorization that the owners of these facilities request from the ministry. The two Almaraz reactors, the oldest, will do so soon, in 2021 and 2023. The Vandellós II plant in December 2027.
The organisations point out the obvious lack of participation and public debate with which the process of renewing these plants is taking place. The extension of the operation of nuclear power plants in the Spanish State beyond the 40 years for which they were built responds exclusively to the interests of the companies that own them. It was specified in a closure protocol between Enresa and the owners of the plants signed in March 2019, assumed by the government, as it appears in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan.
The suspension of renewal periods by the former Minister of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda, Álvaro Nadal, has reduced the period from three to two years for the study of documentation. What is even more serious, according to Ecologistas en Acción and MIA, is that, considering the authorisations published in 2010, these authorisations have either expired or are close to doing so.
They also recall that, during the month of June, after the CSN reported favourably on the extension of Almaraz, this plant has suffered two shutdowns of its reactors due to technical problems. Anti-nuclear organisations warn that extending the closure date would be a highly risky decision, since these facilities are clearly aging and have degraded safety. At this time, the continuity of an enormously polluting energy system concentrated in the hands of a few companies is not necessary, but rather the opening of a broad debate on the future of energy in the Spanish State, the distribution of production and the adaptation of consumption to collective needs, and not to the reproduction of the economic system.
A debate that is made more necessary in view of the transformations that are taking place these days. The fall in energy consumption, and particularly of electricity, with a very important role for wind and solar energy, which cannot be complemented by nuclear energy due to its low flexibility, shows the contradiction of extending the obsolete nuclear fleet in a period of energy transition that must be carried out with ecological criteria.
For this reason, the organisations that signed the letter have asked the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to put the protection of the future for citizens ahead of the financial balance sheets of the large energy companies and to deny the renewal of the operating licence for the Almaraz and Vandellós II power plants.
