Spain to phase out nuclear power by 2035

• 3 months ago (2023-12-29)
• David Flin

Europe 1061 Nuclear 640 Renewables 751

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Spain’s government has confirmed that it will close all of its remaining nuclear power plants by 2035.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has approved a measure establishing a national nuclear waste management policy, paving the way for the decommissioning and dismantling processes to officially begin in 2027. The seven currently operational reactors will be decommissioned successively.

The removal of radioactive waste and dismantling the power plant facilities will cost an estimated €20.2 billion to be paid by the plant operators “in accordance with the principle of ‘those who contaminate, pay’,” according to the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Spain currently has one reactor that has been fully dismantled in northern Castille, and another that is in the dismantling process located to the east of Madrid.

Sánchez’s government hopes to replace nuclear capacity with new renewable energy installations. Solar and wind power accounted for over 50 per cent of Spain’s total electricity generation in 2023, up from 42 per cent in 2022.

Spain was the second largest installer of solar PV facilities in Europe in 2023, behind only Germany. The Spanish government aims to increase the country’s share of renewable energy power generation to 81 per cent by 2030.