Nuclenor submits Garo帽a restart plan

Wednesday, 1 October 2014
The operator of Spain's Garo帽a nuclear power plant, Nuclenor, has submitted documents to the country's nuclear regulator detailing how it plans to meet a series of requirements for the plant's restart.

The operator of Spain's Garo帽a nuclear power plant, Nuclenor, has submitted documents to the country's nuclear regulator detailing how it plans to meet听requirements for the plant's restart.

Garona landscape 460 (Nuclenor)
The single-unit Garo帽a plant (Image: Nuclenor)

At its meeting on 30 July, the Nuclear Safety Council (Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, CSN) voted in favour of issuing a complementary technical instruction to Nuclenor on documentation and additional requirements associated with its operating licence renewal application for the Garo帽a plant.

The technical instruction sets out requirements grouped into eight specific areas. Among these are those associated with the current situation of cessation of operation; those related to long-term operation; and, inspections and tests on the reactor vessel. The CSN has also included design modifications based on lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident and the subsequent European stress tests.

Nuclenor announced on 30 September - the deadline set by the CSN - that it had submitted a "detailed work plan" for when it anticipates meeting each of its requirements. The company said that it considers the CSN's requirements as "very demanding," but added it "will continue to work in all areas that gives priority to maintaining the best technical and safety conditions at the plant."

In September 2012, Nuclenor - a joint venture of Endesa and Iberdrola - missed the deadline to submit an operating licence renewal application for Garo帽a meaning that it had to shut by the time its licence expired on 6 July 2013. However, the reactor was closed in mid-December 2012 to avoid a full year of retroactive tax charges for which Nuclenor would have been liable if it was operating on 1 January 2013.

Early this year, industry succeeded in lobbying for regulatory changes that made it possible for a reactor closed for reasons unrelated to safety or radiological protection to be granted a new operating licence within 12 months of its shutdown. Nuclenor submitted a licence renewal application for Garo帽a to the Ministry of Industry, 抖阴传媒在线 and Tourism on 27 May, requesting a licence for Garo帽a to operate until 2031. The ministry subsequently forwarded this to CSN for evaluation.

Researched and written
by 抖阴传媒在线 Nuclear News

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