Spain Chooses Site For Nuclear Waste Dump

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- After a delay of seven years, Spain's government has finally chosen the location for the country's nuclear waste facility.

The Centralised Temporary Storage (ATC) will be constructed near the small town of Villar de Cañas in the province of Cuenca and will be responsible for housing nuclear waste that is currently stored at numerous nuclear power plants around the country. Specifically, the facility will handle spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste. The construction is expected to cost €700 million ($910 million) and will be overseen by Enresa (Madrid, Spain), a public company formed by the government, and charged with the safe management, storage and disposal of all radioactive wastes produced in Spain.

Villar de Cañas lies 135 kilometres southeast of Madrid and the project will take five years to complete. Up to 400 jobs will be created in the region and the facility will have an expected operational lifespan of up to 60 years.

"The ATC is an indispensable installation for a country with nuclear power stations," Spain's Ministry of Industry said in its statement."Radioactive waste has been generated for decades and will continue to be for years because Spain is not in a position to do without nuclear power."

It added: "Villar de Cañas meets all the technical requirements required for this type of location and the region also has a high unemployment rate, so the project will have a positive economic impact. The location was rated 'very good' in specific areas including geometry, surveying, geotechnical, seismicity, meteorology, hydrology and also for its low potential risk to local populated areas".

Maria Teresa Dominguez, president of Foro Nuclear, the Spanish nuclear trade body, commented: "The construction and implementation of the ATC is a key element for the energy strategy."

Spain's nuclear operators have stored around 6,700 tonnes of spent fuel in cooling ponds located at their nuclear plants but they expect to run out of space in the next couple of years. Spain derives around 21% of its electricity from its eight operational reactors and has no plans to build any more. Seven of those have been cleared to operate for the next decade. However, the government has ordered that the eighth and smallest reactor at the Santa Maria de Garona plant in Burgos in northern Spain, must be shut down by 2013.

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