Portugal's Minister for the Environment, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, today said that he thought the complaint made against the expansion of Spain’s Almaraz nuclear power station, specifically the building of a fuel rod storage facility, will be favourably considered.
Fernandes said a complaint went to Brussels a week ago and that he expects a delay of three months before Portugal will be asked for more details. In the meantime Spain’s position will be analysed.
“It seems very fair that this will be resolved in favour of the Portuguese position,” Fernandes said, when questioned at the Green Project Awards in Oporto.
The minister seemed unperturbed that Spain is cracking on with the construction of its fuel rod dump and has not been asked by Brussels to suspend construction while Portugal’s complaint is being mulled over.
Fernandes said that Portugal had asked Madrid for a suspension of the work but Spain has ignored the request and claims that "no final decision on extending the life of the Alamaraz plant has been made," despite construction starting.
The ageing nuclear power station already has been in the news after a damning report into its safety concluded that it was at the end of its life and should be shut down as scheduled in 2020.
Spain wants to keep the plant operational and needs to build storage for spent fuel rods to enable this to be the case.
There has been one demonstration already as environmental supporters gathered in Lisbon a week ago to protect at Spain’s intransigence and at the potential damage should there be an incident with nuclear waste flowing into the river Tejo at Almaraz and then downriver through Portugal.
