The start of the dismantling of the Garoña nuclear power plant has been authorized

The project has a budget of 475 million euros and foresees peaks of 350 people working simultaneously

BURGOS, July 17. (EUROPEAN PRESS) -

The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has authorized the start of the dismantling of the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant, in the province of Burgos, through a ministerial order that also authorizes the transfer of ownership of the facility from Nuclenor to Enresa, responsible for dismantling, which will take place in the coming days.

As ministerial sources have recalled, the project, which was reported favorably in May by the Nuclear Safety Council, consists of two phases that covers until the year 2033, is budgeted at 475 million euros -without counting the spent fuel management - and provides for up to 350 people to work on it simultaneously.

In Phase 1 (2023-2026) the systems, structures and components of the turbine building will be dismantled and the modifications to the systems and facilities necessary for the management of the resulting waste will be undertaken at the same time that the spent fuel will be evacuated from the pool to the Individualized Temporary Storage (ATI) of the head office.

Subsequently, in Phase 2 (2027-2033) and with the fuel in the ATI, the final dismantling of the radiological buildings will be addressed, and the decontamination, declassification and demolitions will continue, to finally conclude with the site restoration.

According to the same sources, the authorization from MITECO to start the dismantling work comes after the project was submitted to public information between March and April 2021, after the Nuclear Safety Council Plenary issued the mandatory favorable report in the month May and after having obtained the Environmental Impact Declaration that establishes the conditions to which the project must comply.

"The only thing left is for the ownership of the Nuclenor plant to be transferred to Enresa, something that will happen in the next few days, so that the works on the ground can begin," they have pointed out from the department directed by Teresa Ribera.

On the other hand, and according to the same sources, in 2020 the ITJ began working in the 27 municipalities where an impact on employment and income has been identified after the closure of the plant, in accordance with the Urgent Action Plan for the Just Transition Strategy for areas where there had been closures of facilities without reactivation plans.

In May 2021, MITECO, the Junta de Castilla y León, the Basque Government and the municipalities -through the FEMP and AMAC- signed the Action Protocol for the preparation of the Garoña Just Transition Agreement for the closure of the central.

The ITJ has awarded 7.7 million euros to 12 municipal projects to reactivate the area under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, of a socio-sanitary nature, promotion of tourism, rehabilitation of buildings, environmental restoration, management of biomass and is working on a new call for this type of project.

To this they add that lines of aid to companies and small investment projects are being processed, which will be resolved at the end of the year, to which projects in the area have been presented.

Located in the Tobalina Valley, in the province of Burgos, the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant had an installed capacity of 466 MW, was inaugurated in 1971 and was disconnected from the electricity grid in December 2012, when Nuclenor informed the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism their decision not to continue exploiting it.

In July 2013, the definitive cessation of exploitation was declared, but this was not due to reasons of nuclear safety or radiological protection, so Nuclenor submitted a request for renewal of the authorization in May 2014, which was denied in August 2017 by the Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda.

At that time, Enresa began the preparatory work for dismantling and designing the project in two phases.