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| Fig. 1: Map of Spain's ten nuclear reactors. Highlighted in purple are the currently operational reactors. Highlighted in yellow are the reactors whose construction was abandoned due to the 1984 moratorium. Highlighted in green are the three decommissioned reactors. The waste storage facility located in El Cabril, Cordoba is highlighted in red. [6] (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Despite the many similarities in their culture and language, Portugal and Spain went in two very different directions in the late 1900s when it came to the future of nuclear energy in the respective countries. For Portugal, the coup d'état of 1926 led to the 46-year-long dictatorial regime which used the military to control both government and academia. [1] During this time, the Fascist State saw nuclear energy as a modernizing technology that would put Portugal next to great countries such as the US and the UK. Plans had been made, and a location to build the first nuclear generator was proposed. However, these plans depended on the ability of the Portuguese government to extract uranium ore from its African colonies, Angola and Mozambique. With the fight for independence movement arising in Africa, the Portuguese Colonial War began in 1961, and with it went much of the national budget, leaving very little for the nuclear energy project. [2] In 1974, the Carnation Revolution showed that there was not public support for the nuclear energy project, just opposition. The Portuguese people didn't see the nuclear movement as one of development and economic prosperity. They simply saw it as a Fascist idea that needed to be opposed, leading to the beginning of environmental activism in Portugal. [1]
Around the same time, on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain began to take advantage of the United States decision to open up nuclear energy to the Free World despite its 1950s government's strict rules on restricting foreign capital and technology. [3] Between 1962 and 1976, the Spanish government decided to reframe its economic platform in a way that directly shaped the nuclear energy sector for the better. More private-sector, foreign capital and technology opportunities arose, leading to great public optimism for atomic energy and the first generation of Spain's nuclear power plants. [3] Similarly to Portugal's political transition from dictatorship to democracy in the mid-1970s, the Spanish public had an important role in determining if the nuclear movement was to continue. In contrast with Portugal, the last fascist government and the first democratic ones all worked to continue the nuclear expansion.
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| Fig. 2: Overview of Spain's total energy system in 2019. *Total energy supply + international bunker fuels. **Other renewables include wind, hydro, solar, and a small amount of geothermal. (Image Source: J. Santos, after the IEA. [5]) |
In total, since 1964, Spain has built 10 nuclear reactors with 7 being currently operational, as shown in Fig. 1. The first 3 reactors - Zorita, Vandellos 1, and Santa Mara de Garoa - were built as turnkey operations and used by the Spanish to learn more about three different reactor designs: pressurized water reactor (PWR), boiling water reactor, and gas-cooled reactor, respectively. [4] Given its lower construction and operation cost and superior reliability, the Spanish government opted to primarily focus on PWR types for the next generation of reactors: Almaraz 1, Almaraz 2, Asco 1, Asco 2, and Cofrentes (BWR). A third generation of five reactors was meant to be built, but due to a moratorium issued in 1984 by the new socialist government, only Trillo 1 and Vandellos 2 were completed (both PWRs). [4]
Nuclear energy is still the main contributor to Spain's total energy production today - 44.8% as of 2019. [5] As mentioned previously, there are still 7 active reactors in Spain, which are shown in purple in Fig. 1. Despite Spain being able to produce 34.0 Mtoe per year, it is still not enough to match the 121.4 Mtoe total energy supply (TES) and the total final consumption (TFC) needed to run the country. [5] Fig. 2 shows an overview of Spain's energy system by fuel and sector, where one can clearly see that more than half its TES is imported energy. However, none of these imported fuels are nuclear.
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| Fig. 3: Overview of Portugal's total energy system in 2019. *Total supply includes total energy supply (which includes electricity imports) + international bunker fuels. **Other renewables include wind, hydro, solar and geothermal. Image Source: J. Santos, after the IEA. [6] |
Portugal's overall energy production and supply, on the other hand, look very different from Spain's. As introduced above, the Portuguese people's strong opposition to the nuclear movement not only put a strong stop to any production of nuclear energy but also dictated the lack of nuclear energy import. Fig. 3 shows Portugal's overall energy system. It is very clear that no nuclear energy is used to run the country. The only presence of nuclear energy is for nuclear fission and fusion Research, Development, and Demonstration in private companies and academia, amounting to € 4.3 million spent (out of € 122.0 million). [6] Portugal has put a lot of effort into developing its renewable energy infrastructure (mainly bioenergy, wind, and hydro) - so much that it led to an almost 10% increase of TES, largely due to the growth in wind energy from 2005 to 2012. Despite this, in 2019, they were one of the International Energy Agency countries with the highest energy dependency, totaling to 74.2%. [6]
The absence of nuclear energy in Portugal's 2021 Energy Policy Review is a very clear indicator that this nation has no intention of resorting to nuclear energy any time soon. [6] However, that does not mean that there aren't academics and private companies who believe there is a need to start the nuclear energy dialogue again, especially given Portugal's high energy dependency and the economic crisis of 2010-2014. Pereira explains that Portugal has gone through four periods of nuclear energy discussion, with the last one ending in 2013. [7] In this latest period, after the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, nuclear energy started being labeled as clean energy; however, the Portuguese parliament members refused to accept this description, mentioning that despite not contributing to carbon emissions, nuclear power stations have been riddled with accidents, radioactive leaks and even explosions, said Salvador Messano Cardoso (Social Democrats), 8 May 2002. [7] Pereira concludes that this last period solidifies the Portuguese societys opinion towards the incorporation of nuclear energy.
Spain's nuclear future mostly involves the phase-out of all its power plants. The estimated time frame is between 2027 and 2035, mostly due to the current economic difficulties the plants are facing and the increased taxation. [5] The IEA report did, however, request that the Spanish government take a closer look at how this expedited nuclear phase-out will financially affect the consumers, given that together with the coal phase-out, these two fuel types combined cover 16.5% of TES. [5] Additionally, if the government cannot build the infrastructure necessary for the high renewable energy demand, it could potentially increase the need to rely more heavily on natural gas.
© Joana Santos. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] T. S. Pereira, P. F. C. Fonseca and A. Carvalho, "Carnation Atoms? A History of Nuclear Energy in Portugal," Minerva 56, 505 (2018).
[2] P. C. Schmitter, Portugal: do Autoritarismo à Democracia (Imprensa de Ciéncias Sociais, 1999).
[3] J. De la Torre and Maria del Mar Rubio-Varas, "Nuclear Power for a Dictatorship: State and Business Involvement in the Spanish Atomic Program, 1950-85," J. Contemp. Hist. 51, 385 (2016).
[4] M. d. Mar Rubio-Varas and J. De la Torre, eds., The Economic History of Nuclear Energy in Spain (Palgrave MacMillan, 2017).
[5] "Spain 2021 Energy Policy Review," International Energy Agency, 2021.
[6] "Portugal 2021 Energy Policy Review," International Energy Agency, 2021.
[7] T. S. Pereira, A. Carvalho and P. F. C. Fonseca, "Imaginaries of Nuclear Energy in the Portuguese Parliament: Between Promise, Risk, and Democracy," Public Underst. Sci. 26, 289 (2017).
