Spain's Garona Nuclear Plant Cleared for Extension

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) -- Spain's nuclear regulator has reported that the country's oldest nuclear power plant should not be shut down but have its lifespan extended.

The Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) has stated that the Garona power plant in northern Spain, which began producing power over 40 years ago in 1971, is safe to operate beyond 2013, the original date given for its decommissioning by the previous socialist government. The new conservative government has overturned that decree and wants Garona to keep operating. Things started looking up last month when the newly elected government tasked the CSN to investigate the possibility that the plant can continue operating. For additional information, see January 12, 2012, article - Spain's Oldest Nuclear Plant Gets Lifeline.

Garona has a generating capacity of 466-megawatts (MW) and provides approximately 1.4% of the country's electricity. Nuclear power still accounts for 20% of the country's electricity generation.

"The Council concludes that there is no impediment under the terms of nuclear safety and radiation protection," the CSN reported to the government, regarding the Garona plant.

However, plant owner Nuclenor -- a joint venture owned by Endesa SA (MCE:ELE) (Madrid, Spain) and Iberdrola SA (MCE:IBE) (Bilbao, Spain) -- still has to show the regulator that it has complied with all of its 2009 recommendations. In addition to those, the CSN stated it will need to see documents relating to the "investment program and design changes associated with the improvements resulting from lessons learned from the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant".

Back in 2009, the CSN had approved a 10-year extension to the lifetime of Garona, on condition that it carried out some essential safety and maintenance work. This included the installation of a new system for treating radioactive gases in the event of an accident, improvements to the isolation and containment procedures, testing and monitoring equipment and the increased independence of electrical systems for safety reasons. For additional information, see June 10, 2009, article - Spain's Oldest Nuclear Plant Passes Crucial Safety Tests.

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