Spain’s government on 16 March announced its plan for dismantling the Santa María de Garoña NPP (Burgos). The announcement by the Subdirectorate General for Nuclear Energy was published in the Official State Gazette detailing the project for phase 1 of the dismantling of the plant, along with a Study of Environmental Impact related to this. The documents will be available for public comment for 30 days.

The Garoña NPP, which began operation in 1971, was Spain’s oldest nuclear plant. It ceased operation in 2012 when its operator, Nuclenor (a joint venture of Endesa and Iberdrola), objected to a new tax. Although it had a permit until 2019 and was formally closed down in 2017. Decommissioning company Enresa expects to complete phase 1 of its dismantling in 18 months, the phase 1 project indicates.

The first phase includes the dismantling of the Turbine Building (modification of the systems, conditioning of auxiliary facilities for waste management, the dismantling of the interior of the building and its conditioning for its new use as an auxiliary building and the management of generated waste). It also includes management of the used fuel stored in the plant’s pool (operation and maintenance of the installation systems, maintenance and cooling of the fuel and loading and transfer of the containers with used fuel). The Individualised Temporary Warehouse (ATI) will be put into operation to accommodate all used fuel and fuel removed from the storage pool.

In Phase 2, the most important radiological dismantling, decontamination, declassification and demolition of buildings, as well as the restoration of the site will be carried out. This will be the subject of another substantive authorisation that will involve a corresponding environmental impact assessment, Enresa explained in a statement.