The public company Enresa, in charge of nuclear waste management, has formalized the first contract with which to begin its plan for the dismantling and decommissioning of the Santa María de Garoña nuclear power plant, located in the Burgos municipality of Valle de Tobalina . It does so while waiting for the Nuclear Safety Council and the Ministry of Ecological Transition to grant the definitive authorization that allows the transfer of ownership of the plant, currently in the hands of Nuclenor.
With this first contract, Enresa guarantees radiological supervision and protection during the first years of the dismantling process, work that was scheduled for the first months of 2023. Proinsa has been the company awarded the first batch of the contract, which since the Next April 15, it will be in charge of executing radiological surveillance, training and control of workers who will be exposed to these jobs or managing the bioanalysis program. For these tasks they will receive 3 million euros.
The contract includes a second lot dedicated to the operation of the radiological laboratory located at the nuclear power plant, the maintenance of the radiation control system or the declassification of materials and surfaces, pending award to the temporary union of companies made up of the public company ENUSA and the private consultancy Tecnatom. The estimated total cost for the decommissioning of Garoña is 468 million euros, which is financed with the revenue generated by other nuclear complexes currently in operation.
Closed since 2012
Inaugurated in 1971 and stopped in December 2012, the closure of the Garoña nuclear power plant was approved in August 2017 by order of the government of Mariano Rajoy, who refused to renew its operating permit. Its dismantling has been delayed until now to comply with the administrative procedures and the obligations set for the current owner of the facility, Nuclenor, in charge of carrying out certain preliminary works before ceding it to the State for its demolition.
The dismantling plan designed by Enresa contemplates two phases: the first, to be carried out in three years, will dismantle the interior of the turbine building to adapt it as an auxiliary building to be used in the second phase. It also includes the start-up of the individualized temporary warehouse (ATI) where the spent fuel will be unloaded and which until now was located in the facility’s pool, a task that has already begun to be carried out.
The second phase —which was initially set for 2025— will last another 7 years and will entail the dismantling of the nuclear reactor and the rest of the buildings with radiological implications. Buildings will also be decontaminated, declassified and demolished in order to, in a third phase, proceed to restore the site where it is located. Both processes will require the approval of new environmental authorizations by the Government.
This will be the third dismantling of nuclear facilities carried out by Enresa in Spain, after carrying out work at the Vandellós I (Tarragona) and José Cabrera (Guadalajara) power plants, in addition to other work at the CIEMAT experimental reactor that It was located in Madrid.
The closing schedule is maintained
Ecological Transition maintains its plans to cease the operation of nuclear power plants between 2027 and 2035, as established in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan designed with a horizon of 2030. 2019 a protocol for the orderly cessation of all Spanish nuclear power plants, which must be dismantled three years after its shutdown.
In the surroundings of Garoña, meanwhile, the fair transition plans agreed by the Government and the energies will be carried out. In addition to grants for entrepreneurship, the plan includes the installation of four photovoltaic solar plants by the Solaria energy company in the Bureba region, with a total capacity of 595 megawatts (MW), which is equivalent to the generation of electricity for 300,000 homes. .
The company’s projects obtained the favorable environmental impact declaration on February 9. With a budget of 360 million euros, it will install the equivalent of 1.5 million solar panels, to become one of the large projects in the listed company’s portfolio, which aspires to install 3,325 MW of renewable capacity in 2023.
