The Spanish authorities guarantee that there will be “no impact” on Portugal from the construction of the new individual temporary storage facility (ATI), which will be located next to the Tagus River and approximately 100 km in a straight line from the border.

However, the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) says that after assessing the initial documentation, it considered that “the project could be likely to have significant environmental effects on national territory”, and has requested to participate in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure”.

The elements sent by the Spanish authorities are available for public consultation until 12 September on the Participa portal (https://www.participa.pt ).

The document sent by the Spanish authorities explains that the highly radioactive waste (HRW) generated by the nuclear power plant is stored in spent fuel pools.

The Spanish government plans to decommission the nuclear power plants by 2035, but in order to dismantle the plant, a new temporary storage facility must be built to house the spent fuel (HF), HRW and special waste (SW), which are “produced throughout the entire period of operation of the plant (which cannot be stored in the existing ATI) and the radioactive waste (RW) that may be produced during its dismantling”.

Guarantees

The Spanish government guarantees that this project has already been submitted to a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and has a “favourable strategic environmental declaration”.

“HF, HRW, and SW will initially be stored in the nuclear power plant pools and in an ATI, followed by intermediate storage”, a process that will end with “definitive storage in a Deep Geological Repository (AGP)”, states the document to which Lusa had access.

The strategic environmental statement contains the measures to be implemented in the construction of the new warehouse, ensuring that if they are complied with, “no significant adverse environmental impacts are expected”.

Also, “no significant cross-border environmental impacts have been identified” during the operational phase of the new warehouse.

“There is no impact of the project on Portugal”, with all potential “non-radiological” cross-border effects identified being assessed as “not significant”.

The Spanish authorities guarantee that vegetation and fauna will not be negatively affected by the construction and operation of the new warehouse, nor will there be any change in the availability of water as a natural resource or contamination of surface water.

The impact on areas belonging to the Natura 2000 Network due to water consumption or the production of effluents will also not be affected by the construction and operation of the new building.

The only potential “radiological” cross-border effect identified is the “external radiation of workers and the public in the vicinity”, but this is also described as being “completely insignificant” for Portugal.

Spanish studies indicate that the dose rates generated by the new storage “decrease rapidly with distance and at one kilometre away the dose rate generated by ATI 100 represents a very small fraction of the natural background”.

“Given that the minimum straight-line distance (…) to Portugal is 100 km, the radiological impact of ATI 100 in Portugal is completely insignificant”, the document reads.