Victory! Spanish reactor to close

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Greenpeace activists on the dome of the Zorita nuclear power plant.

The governing Partido Popular party has strongly promoted people like Loyola de Palacio and Teresa Estavan Bolea, people who want you forget this is a dangerous, expensive and polluting technology.

De Palacio's fervent pro-nuclear message resonates far beyond Spain. She uses her position as EU Energy Commissioner and Vice President to boost nuclear power as a way to tackle climate change. She doesn't seem to understand that substituting one disaster for another is hardly a solution; in May she proudly cheered Findland's logic-defying decision to build a new reactor.

Meanwhile, back on Spanish soil the unabashedly pro-nuclear Estavan Bolea uses her position as Chair of the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (known by its Spanish acronym CSN) to try to soften nuclear legislation, and promote like-minded people to key technical decision-making positions in the Council.

Spain has no new reactors planned, so Estavan Bolea concentrates her efforts on breathing new life into current plants, hoping to extend their lifespan to 60 years. She fought fiercely and unilaterally to add an extra ten years to the operating license of the 34-year-old Zorita plant, located 50 kilometres northeast of Madrid. Operated by the Union Fenosa power company, it has technical problems, including rust and cracks in its reactor vessel, and has released radioactive material into the air, toward the nearby Tajo River.

But Estavan Bolea proved no match for opposition to the obsolete plant, which included Greenpeace and other social and political groups. One highlight was the widely-reported April storming of the plant by six Greenpeace activists. They scaled its dome to protest the plant's decrepit state and highlight security risks. A CSN investigation into the plant followed.

The landmark September decision marks the first scheduled closure of a Spanish nuclear plant for technical and safety reasons. The affair put Estavan Bolea's obvious pro-nuclear bias under the spotlight, as her shameless pro-nuclear song dragged the CSN's reputation to historic lows. A regulatory body controlling an industry as dangerous as nuclear power must base its decisions on technical realities, not political motives. The CSN urgently requires legal reform, increased transparency and citizen participation.

One dark cloud for activists is the CSN decision to allow the Zorita plant to operate until 2006, prolonging its risk to public health and the environment. Still, the reactor's death sentence should give pro-nuclear forces pause before they attempt to prop up other ageing Spanish reactors.