Dylan Wagemans
SPANISH Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has sent a strong message to his opponents of the Partido Popular and Vox political parties for their support of nuclear power, following the nationwide blackout that paralysed Spain and Portugal on Monday.
“Citizens should know that during this crisis, nuclear power plants have been a problem because they were turned off and it has been necessary to divert large amounts of energy to them to keep their cores stable,” the socialist said.
Sanchez warned that those who are linking the energy blackout that occurred yesterday to the lack of nuclear power “are lying or demonstrating their ignorance”.
His claims come after multiple political figures voiced their support for nuclear power, including Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the president of the Community of Madrid.
“We have been asking for a delay of the closure of nuclear power plants, since there are no backups available,” Ayuso said.
She insisted that there are ‘no alternative plans’ and that ‘ideological agendas don’t work’.
Since the blackout, there has been a lot of attention on renewable energy sources, since more than half of Spain’s power supply comes from these sources.
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Questions remain about the fact that Spain’s heavy reliability on renewable sources may have made the Spanish grid unstable and more susceptible to power outages like the one that occurred on Monday.
The thinking goes that fossil-powered power plants are better equipped to weather the fluctuations that were observed in the electrical grid.
However, many experts argue that it’s still too early to draw conclusions about what may have caused the nationwide blackout.
