At the end of 2023, the Spanish government approved a General Radioactive Waste Plan (Plan General de Residuos Radiactivos, in Spanish, referred to as ‘PGRR’) that outlines its “policy on radioactive waste, including spent nuclear fuel, and the dismantling and closure of nuclear facilities.”

The PGRR confirms the staggered closure of all Spanish nuclear power plants between 2027 and 2035, something long planned, but also mulls exactly how (and where) would be best to store the nuclear waste once the plants are shut down.

The plan proposes seven radioactive waste storage sites around Spain, one at each of the active plants, and to store waste there temporarily for up to five decades before then building a bigger ‘deep geological repository’, something yet to be agreed, designed or given a location.

The aim is that this deep repository will be operational in 2073 and store the radioactive waste forever.

This is essentially a huge hole, and the technical difficulties of such a project mean it will not be ready for 50 years. However, another, more pressing aspect of the project is building the necessary social and political consensus to find and agree on a location.

READ ALSO: How important is nuclear power to Spain?

“The search for social consensus must be started now,” Juan Carlos Lentijo, President of Spain’s Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), told the Spanish press.

“We must begin to build the necessary structures for social participation. The participation of all interest groups must be guaranteed in the process, which is the choice of the site for the AGP (…) It is a process that is not only technical, but also social.”

Yet it’s not just locals who will need to be convinced. Energy companies and voices in the nuclear sector also have doubts about the plan and, more specifically, the time frame.

The government has argued that a “lack of social, political and institutional consensus” makes the option of a single temporary storage facility “unfeasible.” The nuclear sector claims that this is due to the fact that no regional authority is willing to host the site, despite the interest of some local councils.

In previous plans, the Ministry for Ecological Transition had earmarked the tiny town Villar de Cañas, Cuenca (in the Castilla-La Mancha region) as a location to store the nuclear waste, temporarily at least, but it has since been ruled out with the latest plan.

The process will be lengthy. Between 2026 and 2028, legislation will be introduced to regulate the site selection process; between 2029 and 2032, a list of possible locations will be drawn up; between 2033 and 2039, analysis of the sites will be carried out and a final candidate chosen; between 2040 and 2059, studies of the site’s suitability will be carried out; between 2060 and 2071, construction work on the storage facility will take place; and, finally, the aim is that the site will be operational by 2073.

Spain’s major electricity companies, however, many of which own the nuclear reactor sites, are calling for the waste storage site to be brought forward and operational by 2050.

Spain has seven active nuclear plants, located across Cáceres, Tarragona, Guadalajara, and Valencia. 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.

These plants generate roughly a fifth of Spain’s total energy consumption, a figure far behind other countries, particularly neighbouring France, who generated 69 percent of its total electricity from nuclear in 2021.

Owing to the fact that Spain’s nuclear power comes from plants built decades ago (all were built, or at least planned, during the Franco dictatorship) they were not designed to be active for more than forty years, and were built with expiration dates in mind.

No government has proposed opening more, despite the recent energy crisis.