Almaraz, the Spanish power station situated on the Tagus river 100 kilometres upriver from the Portuguese border, has received permission to take in and store nuclear waste.
A huge row erupted when Almaraz applied to store nuclear waste as it lies on the shared Tagus/Tejo river so any nuclear leak, the Portuguese fear, will end up flowing merrily down the Tagus and along the Tejo, as it enters Portugal, onward to Lisbon.
The Iberian Antinuclear Movement said it deeply regrets the authorisation, announced today by Nuno Sequeira, an environmentalist from Quercus who confirmed that Spain’s Directorate General for Energy Policy has authorised the commissioning of the storage facility at Almaraz.
During a protracted spat that involved anti-nuclear groups from Spain and Portugal, diplomatic exchange between the two countries and the intervention of the European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker, the new facility quietly was being built. Portugal did complain to the European Commission but the occasionally sober Juncker bullied Portugal into dropping its legitimate complaint.
“We did not know that despite everything that happened in 2018, and especially in 2017, the construction of the warehouse was still going on," Nuno Sequeira said.
The Almaraz nuclear dump will be used as a depository for nuclear waste from other Spanish nuclear power plants but Almaraz is due to close in 2020, which begs the question, what will happen to the waste after the operating licence expires?
"We asked for a meeting with the Minister of the Environment and with the Minister of Internal Administration. And this is what we are going to do after this news from Spain - to demand that Portugal takes a stronger position with the Spanish Government," said Sequeira, adding that the decision is "inconsistent" as the Spanish Government is committed to closing Spain’s nuclear power plants at the end of their lives.
"I hope that the Spanish government is consistent with its intentions regarding public safety and environmental security and that it does not authorise the renewal of the Almaraz licence beyond June 2020 and that the plant closes at the end of its operations. 40 years of life," commented Sequeira.
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