Rob Horgan
CONCERNS over Spain’s nuclear power stations have been aired by the European Commission.
Issues surrounding the safety of older reactors were raised by climate and energy commissioner Miguel Cañete who claims there is a ‘lack of transparency’ when addressing safety issues at Spanish sites.
Cañete’s allegations were sparked after his request for information about a nuclear-waste storage facility in Bilbao was ignored.
“The Commission expects to receive this information under Article 41 of the Euratom treaty, which governs investment projects in this field,” said Arias Cañete.
“To date, we haven’t received any communication referring to the possibility of installing a nuclear waste storage facility at the plant.”
Cañete added that Spain had ‘described various measures ensuring transparency’ in its 2014 report on the Nuclear Safety Directive but had failed to live up to its promises.
The only “secure waste facility” is to not create the crap in the first place Nuclear fission products are deadly for centuries, it’s absurd hubris to assert that we can control the use of nuclear power, even with the most efficient administration.
Witness Fukushima, Chernobyl and more close calls than we have been made aware of. We need to consign this technology to history and spend those untold billions on alternatives, until and if, we can master fusion.
Another question will arise: Who will pay the bill for the waste storage and the wrecking of those nuclear power stations after their lifecycle has ended? In Germany we discuss a deposit of 37 Billion Euros payable by the three power giants that run nuclear power stations. But there is fear that the Big Three (RWE, EON and ENBW) my bancrupt and then the 37 Billions may be lost. In Germany we have decided to get rid of the last nucler power station in 2022. The power is going to be replaced by green energy. As sun and wind are for low, the Big Three are in trouble as the power price on the spot market has dropped below the cost of producing conventional power. This has dropped share prices of RWE and EON on the stock market by 80%.
Indeed. Germany is to be congratulated on it’s courage in dumping (or intending to dump) nuclear power. I heard a piece on radio four yesterday about how Germany was literally giving away spare power that they couldn’t use. Storage is the next hurdle, but using the resources that would have been wasted on nuclear, no doubt human ingenuity is able to meet the challenge.
Perhaps an internet of power may become possible, where we could share electricity, instead of fighting over it and shedding tears for the share prices of EON and RWE.