The nuclear energy sector maintains its position that the Government should paralyze the closure schedule of the plants that will begin to progressively close them from 2027 and defends that, to do so, the State should review downwards the amount of taxes paid by the electricity companies that own the plants, of the order of 900 and 1,000 million euros, which would allow the sector to be competitive while carrying out the necessary maintenance each year to keep them operating.
“If they removed those taxes, obviously they would be much more competitive,” said Ignacio Araluce, the president of Foro Nuclear, during a meeting this Tuesday with the press to present the report on the activity of the nuclear sector in 2023.. Last year, wind energy generated more electricity than nuclear energy for the first time, 62,500 GWh compared to 54,200, although, in the case of nuclear energy, with a quarter of the installed power and at practically all hours of the day. According to the balance, nuclear power plants produced electricity for 7,600 hours in 2023, compared to 2,000 hours for wind power and 1,500 hours for photovoltaic power, the latter two depending on the wind and the sun.
With these figures, Foro Nuclear, which brings together the companies that own nuclear power plants, such as Iberdrola or Endesa, defends that nuclear energy is the most stable technology – and that it does not emit CO2 and is not as dependent as gas from other countries.. They continue to comply with the closure schedule agreed with the Government but would keep the plants open for longer if they were guaranteed a “competitiveness” that they are not assured of now.. According to Araluce, it would be fixed if they did not have to pay between 900 and 1,000 million in taxes a year.
“Of course,” he responded when asked if the companies that own them would want to maintain the activity of the plants if they did not have to pay taxes such as the IBI, the tax on spent fuel or an environmental tax at regional level.. In total, the nuclear sector denounces taxes of around 17 euros per megawatt/hour of electricity generated in the plants, as well as less favorable treatment than renewable generation, which Araluce has pointed out does not pay taxes, despite the fact that wind farms and photovoltaics do contribute to the IBI and some communities are beginning to approve specific rates for them.
“Evidently, they would be much more competitive. What we would do with those billions,” said Araluce, who said he was not aware of whether the large electricity companies, owners of the nuclear power plants, have made a formal request to the Government in this regard.
The president of the Nuclear Forum recalled that the owners invest 200 million every year in the maintenance of the plants and another 450 for waste management.. The 'problem' of investment and competitiveness, he said, is the 900-1,000 million they pay a year in taxes.
March from Ribera to Brussels
On the contrary, the Executive's approach to nuclear power plants follows a very different path, with the maintenance of a calendar of progressive plant closure that will begin with Almaraz I in 2027 and end in 2035 with Trillo.. The third vice president, Teresa Ribera, insists every time she has the opportunity that this is the agreement signed in 2018 with the owners and that no owner company is interested in making the investments in maintenance that would be necessary.
Regarding the “speculations” surrounding Ribera's eventual departure from the Government to head the PSOE candidacy for the European elections and, from there, become commissioner, Araluce said he did not know “what consequences” such a move would have for the nuclear sector in Spain, but he pointed out that “when you are in Brussels and in a certain environment, your mentality is not the same. Neither better nor worse, but it is not the same.”
Litigation with Ribera over the 'Enresa rate'
In addition to this request – not yet formalized before the Government – the nuclear sector maintains its dispute with Ribera due to the increase in the so-called 'Enresa rate', the amount they have to pay to manage nuclear waste.
The electricity companies that own the plants insist on paying 8 euros per MWh that were signed in 2018 and Ribera, on increasing it to 10.13 euros, in line with what the experts convened that year by his predecessor, former minister Álvaro Nadal, calculated. PP. Ribera maintains that the figure they arrived at was higher than 13 euros, which has been reduced because inflation has not grown as much and there were more funds than expected in Enresa, the National Radioactive Waste Company.
However, the nuclear sector refuses to pay more than the 8 euros/Mwh that it says were agreed.. “We want to pay, what we don't want is to pay for a national or social divergence,” said Araluce, regarding the renunciation of the ATC and, in its place, the commitment to create seven temporary warehouses, next to each plant, as a preliminary step. to the deep geological warehouse that appears in the Seventh National Radioactive Waste Plan, with which the sector does not agree. This new approach, which is what Ribera advocates, makes the management of radioactive waste 2,000 million more expensive, which the owners of the power plants must pay through the 'Enresa rate' that would rise from July 8 to 10 euros.
At the moment, the Ministry of Ecological Transition had to withdraw a first draft royal decree to raise the 'Enresa rate' due to a formal defect for not putting it out for public consultation and to which the owners of the nuclear power plants presented allegations and have now requested the financial information on which Ribera bases this increase before making allegations again. “We will see what happens and what the Ministry of Ecological Transition says,” stated the president of Foro Nuclear.