After traveling to Extremadura on a mission from the Committee on Petitions, a majority of MEPs have approved the recommendation to the Government of Spain to reverse the closure of the Almaraz nuclear power plant due to its role “critical in energy stability”, as well as its socioeconomic impact and its contribution to climate objectives.
In the midst of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's nuclear pivot, in the context of the Middle East crisis, the European Parliament gives a boost to a historic claim by the regional government of the popular María Guardiola. In fact, the Extremaduran president reminded the community institutions that the plant generates employment for more than four thousand families in the region. "Its closure, on the contrary, is condemning the future of an entire region," she sentenced.
At first hour of the morning, the newly appointed vice president of the Junta de Extremadura has traveled to Parliament to follow the vote. Upon his departure, he has celebrated the result, affirming that the plant “is essential for Spain”, for which reason it should continue operating “beyond 2040”. Among the reasons that have led parliamentarians to give the green light to the text are issues such as the stability of supply, the fight against depopulation, and decarbonization.
Supply stability
The report prepared after the visit to Extremadura concludes that the plant is essential for providing a stable and reliable energy supply, acting as a necessary complement to renewable energies, which —as it points out— are intermittent. Almaraz generates approximately 7% of the electricity in Spain, which means, in practice, supplying about four million homes.
For this reason, MEPs justify that, during their mission, experts indicated that nuclear generation is vital “for the resilience of the system and to avoid serious grid failures”, even citing the major blackout that affected the Iberian Peninsula as an example. In this context, the document emphasizes that the combination of nuclear and renewables constitutes, today, one of the most effective formulas for guaranteeing energy balance in the European continent.
Fight against depopulation
The truth is that the plant is the largest industry in Extremadura and represents approximately 5% of regional GDP. Furthermore, Parliament shares Guardiola's argument by referencing in the text the continuity of about four thousand direct and indirect highly qualified jobs.
The town councils of the affected municipalities would have warned Strasbourg that the closure could cause a massive loss of population, of up to 25% in nearby towns, as well as a drastic drop in per capita income, endangering public services such as schools, health centers, and nursing homes.
For MEPs, the fact that Almaraz avoids the emission of approximately six million tons of CO₂ per year is also relevant. For this reason, they recall that the European Union recognizes nuclear energy as an essential transitional activity to mitigate climate change and achieve carbon neutrality in the coming decades.
Technical security and viability
The document, which has been backed by the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions, considers the plant as one of the safest in Europe and places it among the best in the world, according to the World Association of Nuclear Operators. This technical backing reinforces the position of those who defend the continuity of the plant against its planned closure.
MEPs have cited "twin" plants in the United States as an example that have obtained licenses to operate for up to eighty years, which would demonstrate that the Almaraz plant does not present a technical age that justifies its immediate closure. In this regard, the report points out that investment in maintenance and modernization has made it possible to maintain high safety standards.
The lack of justification
Members of the Parliament's delegation have pointed out that the closure “seems to be based on ideological criteria”, the result of the 2019 government agreement, rather than on objective scientific reasons. The report, in fact, regrets that Pedro Sánchez's Executive has not presented a transparent impact assessment or a solid alternative strategy to compensate for the economic and social losses that the region would suffer after the closure.
Likewise, the need for a broader and more technical debate is underlined, in which independent experts, energy operators, and territorial representatives participate, in order to adopt decisions based on data and not solely on previous political commitments.
Parliament's recommendations
Faced with all the detected risks, parliamentarians explicitly urge the Executive to reverse the decision to close the Almaraz plant, with the aim of guaranteeing the stability of the electricity grid. Furthermore, they demand the carrying out of a new technical, rigorous, and transparent impact assessment, which takes into account both national and European energy security.
In the same way, they request that the central Government maintain an effective dialogue with regional and local authorities, pointing out that, until now, there have not been enough meetings with the competent ministries. This point is especially sensitive in a context where the autonomous communities demand greater participation in strategic decisions that directly affect their economic development.
In any case, the report also contemplates an alternative scenario. Should a closure finally proceed in the future, Parliament calls for any transition to be supported by solid economic diversification and by ambitious local employment plans, with the aim of avoiding rural decline and guaranteeing opportunities for new generations.