Ribera warns Ayuso that electrical energy ought to assume the price of lengthening the lifetime of the vegetation | Economy | EUROtoday

Much of the controversy on the lengthening of the helpful lifetime of nuclear energy vegetation goes from who pays the storage and administration of extremely radioactive waste they generate. European laws is evident: “The cost management costs and waste […] They are in charge of those who generated them, ”explains a letter signed by the vp of fresh, honest and aggressive transition, Teresa Ribera, and the Commissioner of Energy, Dan Jorgensen, addressed to the presidents of the communities of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; and Extremadura, María Guardiola. In the letter, to which the nation has had entry / 5 days The secure prolongation of the helpful lifetime of nuclear energy vegetation falls on the vitality producers themselves. ”There isn’t any margin to doubt: they pay {the electrical} corporations, which in Spain are Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy.

The presidents of Madrid and Extremadura, each of the Popular Party, despatched a letter to Brussels on April 7 wherein they freely criticized the scheduled closure of the nuclear energy vegetation in Spain, the calendar will begin with the disconnection of the primary Almaraz reactor (Cáceres) in 2027 and can conclude with Trillo (Guadalajara) in 2035 To the European Commission that pressed the Spanish Government to switch its plans and that it set “a balanced fiscal framework […]that supports the viability [de las plantas atómicas] and eliminate the disproportionate tax burden that currently support, ”writes the favored presidents alongside three pages to which this newspaper has had entry.

The reply got here on April 25, three days earlier than the good blackout within the Iberian Peninsula. In simply a few folios, Jorgensen and Ribera start remembering Díaz Ayuso and Guardiola that the composition of the vitality combine is ​​a state competitors, because the treaties of the Union clarify. Later European responsibles come to clarify that if a authorities strikes the price of the administration of radioactive waste or investments that the centrals want to increase their helpful life “to public resources would constitute state aid under the rules of the European Union […]which means an economic advantage for nuclear energy producers who do not receive their competitors. ”

Reading these phrases is evident, for Brussels, supporting public cash – nicely with direct subsidies or with tax gross sales – the elongation of the helpful lifetime of atomic vegetation that produce electrical energy could be the identical as serving to them to be extra aggressive because the services that produce it with renewable or fossils. That doesn’t imply that it’s unlawful and can’t be corrected. However, this does require the approval of the competence providers of the European Commission, which now directs Teresa Ribera. “In that case, any compensation mechanism would require prior notification and explicit approval of the European Commission […] To ensure that it is necessary, appropriate, provided and not distorting the competition or affects the internal market, ”says the letter of the Danish commissioner and the Spanish vp, each social democrats.

Passing the filter referred to in Brussels will not be simple. This might be seen clearly with the Iberian exception accredited three years in the past. In order for authorized modifications in neighborhood norms, however a transparent political sign from the European Council unanimously unanimously had of the 27 leaders of all member states after which there was an arduous negotiation between Lisbon, Madrid and Brussels. This circumstance was solely attainable due to the vitality disaster that the EU lived after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the actual state of affairs of Energy Island that’s the Peninsula because of the lack of interconnections.

The letter despatched by the 2 conservative regional presidents was nothing greater than one other pattern of the alliance they’ve lengthy maintained in favor of nuclear vitality. For instance, final February each leaders met in Mérida and accused the central authorities of sustaining an ideologized vitality coverage.

Madrid devoted to her model, then accused “cynicism” to the Executive of Pedro Sánchez for a marketing campaign “outdated and without rigor” to shut the centrals. Guardiola, alternatively, identified that “Almaraz cannot be closed, not because we say it, but because they say the technical, scientific criteria and the environmental criteria. But neither Almaraz, nor checkers (Valencia), nor Ascó (Tarragona), nor Trillo, nor Vandellòs (Tarragona),” he stated in reference to the centrals nonetheless lively in Spain. The Extremadura, as well as, was organized, because the newspaper of Extremadura then identified, to fiscally serving to the businesses that personal the centrals (Naturgy, Iberdrola and Endesa) if the central authorities additionally did. And, in reality, this argument reappears within the letter despatched by the 2 regional presidents to Brussels. Extremadura takes on a price to the Almaraz central for which it raises about 85 million euros a 12 months.

The latter is essential within the debate on nuclear vitality, because it corresponds to “the producers”, as recollects the letter of Ribera and Jorgensen, to care for the price of the elongation of the helpful lifetime of the centrals. This in Spain is paid by electrical energy with a price to the National Radioactive Waste (Enresa) firm, publicly owned. The price now elevated a 12 months in the past by 30% mainly as a result of Spain doesn’t have a centralized non permanent warehouse (recognized by its acronym, ATC) since in 2018 the choice of constructing one was disturbed in Villar de Cañas (Cuenca) and no autonomous neighborhood answered affirmatively to the query of the Central Executive about whether or not it was interested by welcoming these services, nor Madrid or Extremadura.

Now the answer is to create seven remedies till the deep geological warehouse that’s contemplated within the General Radioactive Waste Plan is constructed. It calculates how a lot it prices the conservation and administration of this extremely poisonous nuclear rubbish: “future costs of 20,220 million euros.”