The Portuguese government’s Environment Committee has called for the urgent creation of ... another committee to review a dodgy Spanish nuclear power station just 100 kilometres from the border at Almaraz, to the North East of Caceres.
Portugal says this is "an exceptionally serious situation" at an emergency meeting on Thursday after reports that there are serious doubts over the essential servicing of the power station’s cooling system.
MEPs are in even less of hurry and have called for the issue to be 'put on the agenda for an upcoming summit.'
According to Portugal’s Left Bloc, the Environment Committee will report to Ferro Rodrigues, the President of the Assembly, to see if he would like to consider whether it is perhaps necessary to contact the Spanish Parliament in order 'to create a joint commission to discuss the issue.’
The Left Bloc said today that the head of the Environment Committee, Pedro Soares, will send a letter to the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, expressing strong concern about the news that there is a nuclear power station in Spain that presents a risk not far from Portugal’s border and asking for assurances that there are measures in place to prevent any sort of an accident.
The Left Bloc also rather kindly has enquired of the Portuguese government whether there might be any forms of defence for people and the environment in case of a nuclear accident.
"We are finalising the letter and want an urgent response," said Pedro Soares.
On Wednesday the Portuguese Environment Agency said that Spain’s Nuclear Security Council assured Portugal that the Almaraz nuclear power station "is in a safe condition."
Pedro Soares said that he was not reassured, as inspectors from the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council already "have warned of failures in the cooling system at the nuclear power plant of Almaraz."
By the time these various committees have assembled, discussed the grave situation and decided what to do, either the problem will have been solved, or an accident will have happened. Poor maintenance is not an option at nuclear power stations, recession or no recession.
Comments
Safety is a large part of the operating expense, but if there's a catastrophe the plant is immediately bankrupt and the public will pay the bill.
It seems a popular option to build them near country borders, where only half the surrounding population has the possibility to protest construction. The French certainly do that.
In a world where the major risk to human populations is carbon induced climate change and sea level rise, nuclear power has a lot of attraction. But safety of aging plants run by opaque management remains a problem.