Spain's Garoña nuclear plant to remain open until 2013
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By m.p. - Jul 2, 2009 - 7:30 PM
The four-year extension to its licence is seen as too short by staff and as too long by ecologists

The government has confirmed that Spain’s ageing nuclear power plant, Garoña in Burgos, is to remain open until 2013, two years after the end of its planned lifespan. It’s seen as a compromise solution, which the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, had, just hours before the decision was confirmed, said would be criticised from one side and from the other, and that has indeed been the case.

Staff at the plant want it to remain open until 2019, as do the opposition Partido Popular, and the Nuclear Safety Council had recently recommended a new 10-year licence for Garoña if 50 million € is spent on safety.

Greenpeace meanwhile describe the government’s decision as ‘absurd’. The ecologists said they will place an appeal with the courts if Garoña does not close.

Spain’s Industry Minister, Miguel Sebastián, said while making the announcement on Thursday afternoon – just three days before the plant’s current licence expires - that the decision gives the government a margin of four years to find a good industrial alternative to guarantee jobs in the area affected. He described the decision made as a difficult one, and assured Garoña workers that they would not be forgotten.

The Minister gave four reasons for the date chosen: that it is technically possible, is responsible as far as employment is concerned, acceptable as regards energy and is politically ‘coherent’. Sebastián was referring with this last reason to the Prime Minister’s election pledge that nuclear power plants would be taken off line at the end of their planned lifespan, which would have been in 2011 for Garoña.

El Mundo reports a government estimate of 100 million € of state funding for the industrial plan to be put in place in the area.

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