The Eurocámara asks for more information to Madrid on the dismantling of Garoña

The Eurocámara asks for more information to Madrid on the dismantling of Garoña

It requires knowing the calendar and the process that is being followed for the temporary storage of radioactive waste

  The Petitions Committee of the European Parliament will require additional information from the Government of Spain and the European Commission on the timetable and procedures that are being followed for the dismantling of the Santa María de Garoña Nuclear Power Plant, which would begin during the second half of the year. of the year. The formal request that this organ of citizen participation of the Eurocámara will respond to the concern expressed this Wednesday by the mayor of the Burgos town of Valle de Zamanzas.

  Juan José Asensio has denounced that the radioactive waste will end up being deposited in "an area very close" to the plant itself because there is no temporary storage system in Spain (ATI), which is a "serious breach of European regulations". It has also shown serious doubts that the dismantling of facilities owned by Nuclenor - a company owned by the electricity companies Endesa and Iberdrola - may begin in the coming months because "only five containers are available" to transfer and 'bury' that waste.

Asensio has also stressed as contrary to European regulations the fact that it is not the owner of the nuclear company that is responsible for assuming the costs, but that these are to be carried out by the public company Enresa, the National Radioactive Waste Company, Ministry for the Ecological Transition. This year it will allocate 5 million euros to the Garoña temporary storage system. A figure that is estimated will increase to 39.5 million annually from 2020 to 2022.

All this, remarked the mayor of Burgos, without there being a concrete plan for the economic reactivation of the Tobalina Valley beyond some tourism initiatives around the Sobrón reservoir. After hearing his speech, the representative of the Community Executive in this Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament insisted that it is the Member States that have the power to decide on the exploitation of their power plants and the dismantling process under the obligation, of course, 'To comply with all the criteria of nuclear safety set out in the Euratom Treaty'. And in this case he did not find it necessary to "take any action",

The chair of the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament decided to respond to the request of the mayor and MEPs and to request updated data. Not only to Madrid, but also to the community executive itself. But, at the same time, he also stated that, once both parties' response arrives, the petition will be considered closed, which implies that the matter is shelved unless the interested party understands that the explanations are insufficient. In that case, I would have to start the proceedings again to appear in the European Parliament.