SPANISH PLANTS:TWO AGEING nuclear reactors in Spain of the same boiling water design as those facing meltdown in Japan are to be urgently reviewed.
Spain is the only country in the EU with reactors like those seriously affected in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima.
Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian said yesterday he is to ask the National Safety Council to run seismic and flood risk tests at all of the country’s six nuclear stations.
Concern centres on the 27-year- old inland plant at Cofrentes, Valencia, which is of an identical design to the stricken Fukushima plant. The plant’s life was extended by a decade last week, the day before the earthquake struck in Japan.
In 2005 a quake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale was recorded 200km away in Lorca. Spain’s biggest recorded earthquake – 6.9 on the Richter scale – struck 150km from the nuclear plant at Torrevieja, Alicante in 1829, killing 400.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero insisted rigorous safety standards were in place in Spain, where nuclear power provided 22 per cent of Spain’s electricity last year, though he admitted the age of the plants was “relevant”.
“We are going to check more and, if some additional requirement has to carried out at some plant because of theoretical risks, the [Spanish] Council of Nuclear Security will do that work.”
The second plant which has the same boiling water powered design is in Burgos, northern Spain. It opened in 1971, the same year as the Japanese plant, and was due to close this year until its lifespan was extended for a further two years.
Greenpeace, and other groups, have highlighted the safety record of the Cofrentes plant and called for its closure. A report from the Nuclear Safety Council on the Cofrentes plant recorded 102 security incidents, of which two have been Level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
All six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are boiling water reactors. The boiling water design is an alternative to the more common pressurised water design. China and France also announced a review of their nuclear safety programme yesterday.