With the ongoing energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine engulfing Europe, alternative forms of energy – and in particular, the need for nations to be fully self-sufficient and not rely on others for energy production – have become more prescient in recent months.

August was the most expensive month for electricity in Spain ever, with the average price a staggering €308/MWh on the wholesale market. This has, in turn, been passed down to consumers and sent bills skyrocketing further.

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With Spain’s recent ‘Iberian exception’, and the government taking measures to help Spaniards manage skyrocketing utilities bills, affordable energy (and how best to generate it) has become a hot political issue.

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This is, of course, tempered by concerns about climate change and generating power in an environmentally friendly way. One controversial topic that sits at the crossroads of these two major topics is nuclear energy.

Spain’s nuclear capabilities

So, where does Spain fit into all this?

Well, Spain does have nuclear reactor plants. It has seven active plants, including Almaraz I and II, in Cáceres, Ascó I and II, in Tarragona, Trillo, in Guadalajara, Cofrentes, in Valencia, and Vandellós II, in Tarragona. Spain also has a nuclear fuel factory in Juzbado, close to Salamanca, and a radioactive waste disposal location at El Cabril, in Córdoba, southern Spain.w

These plants generate roughly a fifth (20 percent) of Spain’s total energy consumption.

According to ClimateScoreCard, Spain’s nuclear electricity production makes up around 35 percent to 40 percent of its emission-free electricity, which is estimated to prevent the emission of around 30 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. 

Spain’s nuclear plants produce on an average around 8,000 hours of electrical power per year (out of of the 8,760 in a year) making it the most productive form of generation in the Spanish grid.

How does Spain stack up?

So, we know that Spain has nuclear power stations. But how does it stack up against other nuclear countries?

According to rankings from the Nuclear Energy Institute, in 2021 Spain was the tenth highest nuclear generating country in the world, following the United States in first (who produced almost double any other country), China, France, Russia, South Korea, Canada, Ukraine, Germany and Japan.

In terms of the share of nuclear energy – that is, the percentage of total electricity generated by nuclear energy – Spain was a little lower, however, coming in 14th at 20.8 percent.

This pales in comparison to other nations, particularly neighbouring France, who generated a whopping 69 percent of its total electricity from nuclear in 2021 – by far the highest proportion of any country in the world.

Interestingly, or rather worryingly considering the wartime context, Ukraine came 2nd in the NEI ranking (55 percent), followed by Slovakia (52.3 percent), Belgium (50.8 percent), Hungary (46.8 percent), Slovenia (36.9 percent), Czcech Republic (36.6 percent), Bulgaria (34.6 percent), Finland (32.8 percent), Sweden (30.8 percent), Switzerland (28.8 percent), South Korea (28 percent), Armenia (25.3 percent), then Spain (20.8 percent) and Russia (20 percent).

History

Spain’s nuclear programme began in 1947, headed by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) until the Nuclear Energy Board (JEN) was created a year later, in 1948.

All of Spain’s nuclear power plants were built, or at least planned, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The first was the José Cabrera plant, built in Almonacid de Zorita, around 70km from Madrid in 1965. The rest were built in the 1970s and became operational in the 1980s, but Spanish perceptions – both public and political – of nuclear energy were seriously damaged in 1966 when a flight transporting American nuclear weapons near Palomares, Almeria, dropped a nuclear weapon off the coast.

An American B52 dropped a hydrogen bomb that leaked radioactive material into the surrounding area, and many Spaniards have remained suspicious of nuclear – whether for energy or weapons purposes – since then.

Spain’s transition to democracy saw the dropping of several nuclear projects, and after Basque-based separatist terror group ETA murdered six people involved in the Lemóniz nuclear plant between 1978 and 1982, many feared a potential bomb at a plant and Spain’s anti-nuclear culture was firmly established.

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What about the future?

As Spain’s nuclear power comes from its seven remaining plants built decades ago, they were not designed to be active for more than forty years. Since each became operational in the 1980s, no government or company has suggested suggested building more plants.

As they were designed with expiration dates in mind, so to speak, all seven are set to shut down between 2025 and 2035. According to Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition, the current energy crisis has not changed these scheduled decommissions nor their dismantling, despite their affordability and clean energy production capabilities. 

Of particular concern to the Spanish government is the disposal of nuclear waste. “The treatment of these wastes,” Teresa Ribera, Spain’s Minister for Ecological Transition, said recently, “brings very high costs and we still lack a proven and definitive solution for them after 60 years of using technology. In addition, accidents such as Chernobyl or Fukushima are clear references about the risks of nuclear energy.”

Unlike neighbouring France, it seems that for Spain the potential dangers of utilising nuclear energy are not yet offset by its potential energy benefits – despite the recent volatility of the market and climate change commitments moving forward.

Weapons

Unfortunately, energy generation is just one topical nuclear issue of the 2020s. With war in Ukraine and Russia rather alarmingly refusing to totally distance itself from the potential use of a nuclear weapon somewhere down the road, the destructive capabilities of nuclear power are now back in the forefront of our minds for the first time in decades.

Where does Spain fit into potential nuclear warfare?

Well, put simply, Spain is dependent on others because it doesn’t have a nuclear weapon. In fact, the only EU member state with nuclear weapons is France, though the United Kingdom also has nuclear weapons.

At the global level the United States, Russia, obviously, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have nuclear weapons capabilities.