Spain’s ageing Garona NPP may stay open

Spain’s incoming centre-right government may allow the country’s ageing Garona nuclear power plant to remain open beyond 2013, the deadline for closing set by its Socialist predecessors.

In 2009, then-premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ordered the Garona plant to close in 2013, by which point it will have been in operation two years more than a benchmark 40-year lifespan. Zapatero’s decision came after the Nuclear Safety Council ruled the plant could run safely until 2019.

El Mundo newspaper reported that Industry Minister Jose Soria, who took office last week after his People’s Party (PP) swept to election victory on Nov. 20, said he was not “a supporter of under-utilising that capacity for five years”.

Garona is owned by Spain’s two largest power utilities, Endesa and Iberdrola, and generates 460MW or 0.5% of national capacity. Closing the plant is not expected to cause any supply issues. The country counts seven further nuclear reactors, but these are much younger and envisaged to run at least until the 2020s.