CONSULTING

announced in April 2004 that his government would “gradually abandon” nuclear energy, while
increasing funding for renewable energy. The first unit (José Cabrera) was shut down at the end
of 2006. Zapatero confirmed the nuclear phase-out goal following his reelection in 2008, and then
Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian has stated that “there will be no new nuclear plants”. 790 As of
mid-June 2016, in the absence of an established new government, there is no clear visibility of
national energy policy in Spain.
Spanish nuclear operators have been implementing both upratings and life extensions for existing
facilities that increased nominal capacity by around 10 percent. Further minor upratings are
planned. 791 The nuclear lobby organization Foro Nuclear claims that over 80 percent under the
post-Fukushima National Action Plan scheduled safety measures had been implemented by
March 2016. 792 In February 2011, the Spanish parliament amended the Sustainable Energy Law,
deleting from the text a reference to a 40-year lifetime limitation and leaving nuclear share and
lifetime to be determined by the government. 793 Nevertheless, on 16 December 2012, Garoña was
shut down permanently. The operator Nuclenor had calculated that further operation of the
446 MW plant would not be economic. The Cabinet of the Government elected in November 2011
approved in February 2014 a Royal Decree that would enable any recently shut reactors, in this
case Garoña, to re-apply for their operating reactors within the next 12 months. In May 2014,
Nuclenor applied for a new license to operate until 2031. 794 However, there is still no official time
schedule for restart. The Spanish parliament, with the support of most of the represented parties,
including PSOE and Podemos, passed a motion against Garoña restart. 795 Eleven mayors of towns
in the vicinity of the plant have protested against the proposed restart and called for the closure
of the unit to be confirmed. 796
More recently, opposition has also been voiced in neighboring Portugal against the continued
operation of the two aging 35- and 33-year-old reactors at Almaraz. According to two Members of
the European Parliament (MEP), in a written question to the European Commission, on
29 April 2016, the Portuguese Parliament adopted a resolution “recommending that the
government take all the necessary initiatives vis-à-vis the Spanish State and European institutions
with the aim of ensuring that the Almaraz power plant is closed down”. 797 The Portuguese
790 Reuters, “Spain Insists on Energy Saving, Not Nuclear Plants”, 21 January 2009.
791 IEA, “Energy Policies of IEA Countries—Spain 2015 Review”, 2015.
792 Foro Nuclear, “Spanish nuclear plants 5 years after Fukushima”, 4 March 2016,
see http://www.foronuclear.org/en/news/latest-news/122104-spanish-nuclear-power-plants-5-years-afterfukushima,
accessed 2 July 2016.
793 WNN, “No Limits for Spanish Reactors”, 17 February 2011, see http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP-
No_limits_for_Spanish_reactors-1702117.html, accessed 2 July 2016.
794 Nuclenor, “Nuclenor submits application to renew the operating licence of the plant Garoña”, Press
Release, 27 May 2014.
795 Spanish News Today, “Greenpeace activists protest at Burgos nuclear power plant reopening plans”,
17 February 2016, see http://spanishnewstoday.com/greenpeace-activists-protest-at-burgos-nuclear-powerplant-reopening-plans_62450-a.html,
accessed 2 July 2016.
796 EITB, “Mayors urge EU to monitor the possible re-opening of Garoña”, 17 June 2014.
797 Ana Gomes (S&D), Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL), “Subject: Almaraz nuclear power plant”, Parliamentary
Questions, Question for written answer to the Commission, Rule 130, European Parliament, 12 May 2016,
Updated 24 May 2016, see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+WQ+E-
2016-003944+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN, accessed 2 July 2016.
Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al. 190 World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2016