The decision, taken at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday of the board of directors and the general assembly of shareholders, seeks to extend the life of the two units to 2030.
They are currently scheduled to be shut down in 2027 as part of Spain’s 2019 nuclear phase-out policy.
The company said it had agreed to “officially request the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to modify the operating licence for the two units of the Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant, extending their operation until June 2030.
“Centrales Nucleares Almaraz-Trillo (CNAT) wishes to reiterate its commitment to continue operating the Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant safely, reliably, and efficiently, maintaining the high standards that place it among the best nuclear power plants in the world”.
Growing calls for phase-out rethink
Spain’s seven operating nuclear power reactors – Almaraz I and II, Ascó I and II, Cofrentes, Trillo and Vandellós II – generate about 20% of its electricity. Under the country’s nuclear phase-out plans, agreed in 2019, four reactors are scheduled to close by the end of 2030 – including the two Almaraz ones – while the remaining three reactors will shut by 2035.
In February the Spanish nuclear industry called for a rethink of the plans with a manifesto – signed by 32 companies, including Empresarios Agrupados-GHESA (EAG), Framatome, GDES, GE Vernova, IDOM and Westinghouse – saying: “We urge the initiation of a dialogue and renegotiation of the 2019 agreement on the phased shutdown of nuclear power plants. This agreement was made under an industrial, geopolitical, social and economic context that is vastly different from today’s reality.
“Our industrial network must not see its competitiveness reduced due to the decision to shut down nuclear power plants starting in 2027, beginning with the Almaraz nuclear power plant, without first securing a viable alternative involving all CO2-free energy sources.”
The companies said that extending the operation of Spain’s nuclear power plants “would ensure the sustainability of our increasingly demanding energy system without jeopardising security of supply or the expansion of renewable infrastructures. Additionally, it would reinforce geostrategic independence from other nations”.
However, the manifesto notes that to achieve this “it is crucial to ensure the economic viability of nuclear power plants, with a special emphasis on the excessive tax burden imposed on the sector”.
Spanish nuclear power plants, it says, have been modernised and are capable of operating for many more years, “up to 60 or even 80, in line with global trends”.
In the same month, the Plenary Session of the Spanish Congress approved a proposal calling for the government to implement a series of measures that would reverse the country’s decision to phase out nuclear power. The proposal, presented by the right-wing People’s Party, was passed on 12 February, with 171 votes in favour, 164 against and 14 abstentions.
Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant currently supplies more than 7% of the electricity consumed in Spain, equivalent to 4 million homes, and employs about 4,000 people. Almaraz units I and II are pressurised water reactors with a net capacity of 1011 MWe and 1006 MWe respectively. Unit I entered commercial operation in 1983 with unit II following the next year. The plant is owned by Iberdrola (53%), Endesa (36%), and Naturgy (11%).
CNAT said Almaraz meets all the requirements of the Periodic Safety Review approved by the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) in 2020 and valid until 2030. It added that with “an annual investment of EUR50 million (USD58 million) for the improvement, upgrading, and modernisation of its equipment, the Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant is in optimal technical condition to continue operating” and cites the example of its “sister plant, North Anna Nuclear Power Plant” in the USA which has been given permission to operate for up to 80 years.
