September 1, 2009

Nuclear Developments in Europe

Sonal Patel

Recent months brought several developments in Europe’s much-touted "nuclear renaissance."

Spain Extends Life of Nation’s Oldest Reactor

Spain’s government on July 2 granted a four-year extension to the operating permit of the 466-MW Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant (Figure 3). The decision follows a nonbinding recommendation by Spain’s nuclear regulator in June to issue a 10-year operating permit extension for the 38-year-old plant that was scheduled to be decommissioned in 2011 — on the condition that it is modernized. That would cost operating companies Iberdrola and Endesa an estimated €50 million, but it is an investment they are willing to make.


3. A half life. Spain’s government in July granted a four-year extension to the 466-MW Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant, a 38-year-old plant that is by far the country’s oldest nuclear plant. Spain’s prime minister said the country needs the energy, even though the plant produces about 1% of the nation’s electricity. Courtesy: Foro Nuclear

The plant is by far the oldest remaining nuclear plant in Spain. Lobbyists in the country have been pushing to extend the plant’s operating life, saying that Spain needs nuclear power to support the nation’s rapidly growing renewable energy portfolio. Environmentalists, meanwhile, have demanded the plant’s total shutdown because they claim the reactor has suffered from severe cracking, and that corrosion has affected various components in the reactor vessel.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defended the government’s decision, saying that Spain needs the energy and the Garoña area needs the economic activity — even though the plant produces only about 1% of the country’s electricity, has aging technology, and produces 50% more high-level waste than Spain’s other five nuclear plants.

Nuclear power produces 20% of Spain’s electricity, but permits for running most of the other plants will also expire by 2011 — or within the mandate of Zapatero’s government. A decision to prolong the life of the Garoña plant on the Ebro River is a major reversal for Zapatero, who, during general elections in 2004 and 2008, pledged to gradually phase out nuclear power.