Today’s long-overdue meeting in Madrid, between Spain and Portugal’s Ministers of the Environment concerning the proposed nuclear waste dump at Spain’s Almaraz power station, ended early today with zero progress.
"Portugal is going to ask Brussels to intervene. If there is a dispute, it has to be resolved by European bodies," said the Portuguese Environment Minister after the leaving the meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Isabel García Tejerina, and the Minister of Energy, Álvaro Nadal.
The Portuguese Government argues that the design of the waste landfill near the Almaraz nuclear power station has not incorporated a study on cross-border impacts and so is against European rules.
Portugal's Environment Minister, João Matos Fernandes, stresses that "there is no decision yet made on the continuation of the Almaraz power plant beyond the period of its license."
The Spanish Government wants to extend the Almaraz plant for another ten years, but Portugal’s Minister for the Environment claims this decision has not been taken and that "Portugal does not have to interfere in the energy policies of Spain, just as Spain does not interfere with Portugal's energy policies."
Matos Fernandes also said that what is at stake is a project that "has potential environmental impacts in our country. It is close to the border and in addition it is very close to the river Tejo and, therefore, the river Tejo has to be particularly well studied and we have to undertake an environmental impact assessment."
"The Socialist Party Government was aware of this project on September 23, when the Nuclear Safety Council issued a positive opinion. Six days later, on September 29, I wrote the first letter to my Spanish counterpart and also to the minister with the Energy portfolio. Therefore, it was only then that the question arose," claimed Matos Fernandes when asked by journalists about the fact that the PSD said that the current Portuguese government was ages late in taking this matter seriously.
The criticism of tardiness has been made by the deputy chairman of the Social Democrat group, Berta Cabral, who also accused the government and the environment minister of ignoring both "the 2016 warnings from the PSD and the recommendation of the Assembly of the Republic in the matter of Almaraz."
Environmental associations in Portugal and Spain are demonstrating in Lisbon this eveing against the construction of a nuclear waste landfill at Almaraz and against the operation of the Almaraz plant itself which has reached the end of its designed life.
Portuguese environmentalists say the intention of the Spanish Government is to prolong the operation of the plant and have criticised the performance of the Portuguese government.
Spain’s El Diario newspaper reported on the conclusion of Spain's Nuclear Safety Council where the management of the plant was found culpable of "a conscious, voluntary, repetitive and programmed failure" concerning safety processes at the plant.
In 2014 the European Union passed legislation which, in cases such as this, requires cross-border environmental impact studies to be undertaken before any decisions can be validated.
Spain has been quickly pushing ahead with its plans at Almaraz in the knowledge that Portugal is bound to complain, primarily because there is no agreed emergency plan to deal with a leak of nuclear material into the Tejo river.
Unprepared:
Portugal is not prepared to respond to a nuclear incident, according to the man who should know: Ricardo Ribeiro, who is the president of Portugal’s Civil Protection body.
Ribeiro says there is a lack of specialist equipment and anyway, his rescue workers have not been trained to cope with a nuclear incident.
Any incident affecting Portugal would start in Spain as Portugal has no nuclear power plants.
"It is true that there has been some contact between the Almaraz plant's security body and our national Civil Protection authority, with visits and exchanges of information," said Ribeiro who swiftly added that such contact had been minimal.
