Greenpeace report “The inevitable closure of the Spanish nuclear power plants: an economic and social opportunity” also draws attention to the fact that although the Spanish nuclear fleet has already reached 84% of its useful life, the funding available for its dismantling does not even reach 30%.
This is the first report that measures the economic and social impact of the comprehensive nuclear dismantlement in Spain. For Mario Rodriguez Vargas, executive director of Greenpeace Spain, this comes at the right political moment, because in this legislature and from now to 2024, the revision of the plants´ operating licenses renewals should start. The document being now presented by Greenpeace wants to show that it is possible to do without nuclear and also do so while creating employment.
According to “The inevitable closure of the Spanish nuclear power plants: an economic and social opportunity,” the economic impact of actions linked to decommissioning, waste management and replacement of nuclear energy by other sources will mean the net creation of 300,000 jobs.
Of these, 100,000 would correspond to the decommissioning of power plants and waste management and 200,000 to the installation of new renewable power. The report, based on a study by the consulting firm Abey Economic Analysts for the environmental organization, estimates that an increase in GDP of some 20,000 million euros and an increase in revenue collection of about 2.800 million euros would occur.
How much does the nuclear shutdown cost?
The report also quantifies the investments required to decommission the plants in Spain: based on the planning currently in force -the 6th Radioactive Waste Plan – the cost of dismantling the plants and manage resources would amount to 20,200 million euro.
Meanwhile, Raquel Monton, responsible for nuclear campaign of Greenpeace, said during the press conference held yesterday to present these figures, that the calculations of fees payable by the utilities owners of the power plants and holders of other facilities related to the fund managed by the public company ENRESA, from which the necessary funding for decommissioning would be extracted, do not match the actual needs.
In fact, the report states that although the Spanish nuclear fleet has already reached 84% of its life the funding available for dismantling does not even reach 30%. In 2014, this fund had a balance of 4,254 euros.
In this regard, the Court of Auditors in a report in 2015, said that the nature of the fund does not guarantee the mandatory principle of intergenerational justice and alerts on an underfunding of the same of over 1,500 million euro.
Greenpeace considers it essential that the cost of nuclear closure is not passed onto citizens and future generations for what they believe it is urgent to provision for the necessary funds. It also proposes not to grant any additional operating license and that a new Plan of Radioactive Waste Management be produced.
The report also delves into the kind of jobs that would be created by education levels and what sectors would be the most benefited: retail and hospitality on the one hand, and financial, professional and scientific activities on the other.
