Ageing nuclear plant puts Zapatero at a crossroads (News Feature)

By Sinikka Tarvainen Jun 12, 2009, 10:40 GMT

Madrid - 'I am the most anti-nuclear member of the government,' Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero once boasted.

Today, Zapatero could well be regretting those words as he faces a difficult decision over the possible closure of the 466 megawatt Garona nuclear power plant near Burgos in the north of the country.

Spain's oldest nuclear plant has a become a symbol both for environmentalists demanding its closure, and for its defenders who argue that shutting it down would be sheer folly.

Garona only produces about 1.4 per cent of Spain's energy, but its future could set a precedent for decisions concerning several bigger nuclear plants in the next few years.

A competitive and technologically advanced country 'cannot do without nuclear power,' Ignacio Sanchez Galan said.

Sanchez Galan heads Iberdrola Renovables, a company specialized in the renewable energies that Zapatero's socialist government has pledged to replace nuclear power with.

The government earlier announced plans to phase out nuclear plants as their life spans expired, and the original 40-year life span that Garona was designed for ends in 2011.

Yet the life span of a nuclear plant is a relative concept, and the nuclear security watchdog CSN recommended that Garona continue operating for another decade, on the condition that it is modernized and its security is upgraded.

That is estimated to cost the operating companies Iberdrola and Endesa at least 50 million euros (70 million dollars), an investment they are willing to make.

The Zapatero government wants to gradually replace nuclear power with wind, solar and other renewable energies in which Spain has become one of the world leaders.

Spain already gets about 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, about the same as from nuclear plants.

However, Spanish public opinion is warming to nuclear energy as other European governments are also increasingly promoting it.

The opposition conservative People's Party (PP) is in favour of nuclear power, while Zapatero's Socialists are internally divided over the issue.

Nuclear energy is environmentally friendly, relatively cheap, and the costs savings it allows can be used for developing renewable energy, its defenders argue.

Nuclear power can also help to increase the energy independence of Spain, which depends on imports for oil and gas.

Yet if Zapatero keeps Garona going, he will lose his 'green' reputation and appear even more pro-nuclear than his conservative predecessor Jose Maria Aznar, who closed a nuclear plant.

Aznar's socialist predecessor Felipe Gonzalez, on his side, stopped the construction of new nuclear plants.

The ageing Garona plant, which dates from the era of dictator Francisco Franco, is obsolete and far from safe, environmentalists argue.

Zapatero said recently that the government would stick to its electoral promises, a statement that some analysts interpreted as spelling the closure of Garona.

The government was expected to take a decision by July 5.