The territory forces ERC and Junts to review the schedule for closing nuclear power plants

TarragonaThe debate on the closure of nuclear power plants has reopened when, apparently, it seemed to be already over. The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC), approved in 2021 by order of the European Union, provides for the closure of all nuclear power plants. State nuclear power plants. As for Catalonia, the first to close the door is Ascó I (2030), the second Ascó II (2032) and the last Vandellòs II (2035). This plan has the majority support of the parties, including Junts and ERC, which in their electoral programmes are in favour of abandoning nuclear energy. However, a few days ago the PP presented in Congress a proposal to extend the life of nuclear power plants, which was finally approved thanks to the abstentions of Junts and ERC. This change of position is motivated by the pressure being exerted by the territory where the nuclear power plants are located, which is openly committed to maintaining this type of energy.

For the moment, the Spanish government insists that the planned schedule will be met, a position also defended by the Generalitat, both institutions governed by the Socialist Party. However, when the position of the territory is reviewed, there are cracks everywhere: in January, more than 7,000 people demonstrated in Extremadura against the closure – in 2028 – of the Almaraz plant, with the presence of politicians from the PP, Vox and the PSOE.

In the affected areas, the commitment to nuclear power is very clear and there is no need to read between the lines or interpret arguments. The mayor of Vandellòs and L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, Assumpció Castellví, from Més Municipio (Junts' white label) argues that the country "is not prepared to generate with renewable energy what nuclear power now generates" and predicts that if the three Catalan reactors are closed, energy will have to be bought from abroad: "We will end up buying the energy." And that is despite the fact that The Generalitat has finally ruled out the installation of the three very high voltage lines that were to reach from Aragón to Baix Llobregat via a 287-kilometre cable.

Castellví is trying to convince Junts that it needs to rethink its position on nuclear power and, as she explained to the newspaper ARA, the party has recently decided that from May it will begin a series of debates on nuclear energy, which she hopes will end up motivating "a change in the party's guidelines". "If I don't succeed, the party already knows that I will always defend the interests of my citizens," she says.

What has Juntos said until now? In the current electoral programme it defends the closure of nuclear power plants, but at the congress it held last October it already began to talk about "opening a debate on the role of nuclear energy". The draft of the report made no reference to prolonging the life of these plants and, in fact, clearly supports renewable energy, but it does warn that "we must not underestimate the impact that nuclear energy has on the total energy produced in the country", which is 56%. However, in 2022, in a vote on the matter in the Parliament, the deputy Salvador Vergés was very belligerent against nuclear power plants, vehemently criticizing the waste and betting on the closure without extensions: "Ethically, the future of the country cannot be mortgaged, and not just for the next generation but for thousands of years."

In addition to the problem of energy generation, the municipalities closest to the nuclear power plants fear above all the economic repercussions. The plants employ (and pay) about 3,000 workers, but they also pay large sums of taxes to the municipalities where they are located, which receive further compensation thanks to the Nuclear Transition Funds, created from an environmental tax.

"The nail that would seal the coffin for the region"

"The closure would be the nail that would hammer the coffin of our region," warns Francesc Barbero, mayor of Flix (ERC) and president of the Ribera d'Ebre Regional Council. "We have been losing population for 25 years," he laments, and he is convinced that the depopulation will be much more intense without these jobs. "It is not easy to reconvert a sector when there is a closure." As for his party, Barbero admits that he does not "100% agree with the electoral programme" and believes that "the speeches must be adapted to the times we live in." He believes that the climate emergency caused by CO₂ emissions "has given a second life to nuclear energy," which, while it is true that it generates toxic waste that we do not know how to destroy, at least does not harm the atmosphere. "There is a nuclear debate in the EU itself," he recalls.

What does ERC say? The Republican deputy in Congress Jordi Salvador argued in the debate in the Spanish lower house that the closure could not be "improvised" and that "the economy and life of the territory should not be put at risk." In statements to the newspaper ARA, Salvador assures that ERC is in favour of the closure of the nuclear power plants, "provided that the homework has been done" for an energy transition. In his opinion, it has not been done. Neither from the Spanish government, either with the PSOE or the PP in Moncloa, nor - he recognises - from the Generalitat, where his party has participated in successive governments from 2016 to 2024: "The responsibility is everyone's." However, he adds that it is the State that has greater legislative capacity and, therefore, that has greater responsibility in this debate. The Republicans, in this sense, have requested the appearance of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, to explain her plan to close the nuclear power plants.

Obsolete energy?

The mayor of Ascó, Miquel Àngel Ribes, has no problem with his party because he is a member of Per Tu, a municipalist party. "It doesn't matter what colour they are, in the territory all the parties know that it is not an obsolete industry," he says. "No town or city wants to lose its main industry, the one that generates the most taxes and jobs. Just as they try to keep Seat going," he justifies.

The Government, for its part, maintains its commitment to "decarbonize" Catalonia and make the transition to renewable energies. Its president, Salvador Illa, said this last week in the plenary session of the Parliament. "Commitments must be fulfilled," he responded to the leader of the PP, Alejandro Fernández, who criticized the executive for maintaining the objective of closing nuclear power plants.