The Almaraz extension enters the “silence” phase a month after the request pending the Nuclear Safety Council

After the storm came calm. Or, rather, the silence that has imposed so much on itself in the Government as in the owners of the Almaraz nuclear power plant waiting for the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) to give its verdict on whether it is possible to extend its useful life and maintain it in operation until 2030. It’s been a month since Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy They sent the formal request for an extension to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, after many months urging it in public messages to allow the two reactors to continue operating for two and three more years respectively. Now a low profile has been installed on both sides, waiting for the highest authority in nuclear safety to determine if the plant is in a position to continue. It will not be the end of the process, that could last months but also years and that will conclude with a political decisionof the current Government or of the one that the moment has arrived.

The process towards the eventual extension of Almaraz advance slowly and in total discretion. Slow, because the Ministry of Ecological Transition has taken more than three weeks to send the documentation that the owners sent to the Nuclear Safety Council. After analyzing that everything was in order and that no necessary documents were missing, he did so last week. “Waiting,” they say, are the owners, who are betting on being “disappeared” until they issue their report. The Ministry does not intend to comment either so as not to condition the decision of this body, which also allows the third vice president, Sara Aagesen, not commenting on the future of this nuclear power plant, nor of the rest, as he did this week in Congress, to a question from the popular deputy Guillermo Mariscal. And all at the doors of the electoral campaign in Extremadurawhere the government of the PP candidate Maria Guardiola He is openly committed to keeping it open – in fact, he even announced a reduction in the ecotax, before the electricity companies gave up demanding a tax reduction to request the extension – and reproaches the Extremaduran PSOE for not defending in Madrid an activity that generates a lot of employment and activity in this community.

The extra time ball, then, is already on the second roof of the process, in that of the Nuclear Safety Council, which is the body responsible for issuing the authorizations operation of nuclear power plants, to which they communicate any incident that may give rise to an unscheduled stop of those that frequently occur to solve failures or anomalies of all kinds or the scheduled stopswith inspections that are more or less common. In the case of inspecting the plants every year, during the so-called scheduled shutdowns and other inspections. In this 2025, Its two reactors have been visited by the CSN on eleven occasions, the last one in September, to verify components, inspect radiological surveillance or carry out the “annual drill” of emergencies. Number two also resumed operation at the beginning of November after a month of downtime for refueling, a process in which it is used to check and maintain its components.

Reports and requests… until withdrawal?

Due to its functions, the CSN is an organization eminently technicaldespite the fact that a few months ago it was the subject of political controversy by the appointment by Congress and through administrative silence instead of the express support of its president and members among candidates proposed by the Government – some, very close to Moncloa, such as the former Secretary of State for Health, the epidemiologist Silvia Calzón– and what were they vetoed by the PP and Vox. In any case, the Council also has the recognition of the electricity companies regarding the work ahead, on which they do disagree with the Government.

The owners of Almaraz do not expect the CNS to review the documentation on the extension cause no shock or give rise to no unexpected demandgiven that it already subjects the nuclear power plant to frequent controls, which allow the agency to know the state of the facilities.

The Government sees it differently because it is not ruled out that it could request additional reviews on the state of the reactors or on the consequences of an on-off practice in just one day, which the owners resort to for days in which, due to a large entry of renewables, the price of electricity is set below the production cost of nuclear power plants. Then, they inform the CNS of a stoppage for market reasons. This is the reason why on the day of the blackout two of the seven reactors were inactive – in addition to Trillo, which was refueling.

In the last extreme – which the owners do not contemplate – in which the CSN sees it necessary to make repairs and adaptations that would result excessively expensive, Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy could even withdraw from the extension for reasons of profitability and put on hold the possibility of Almaraz continuing to operate until 2030. Given this possibility, Aagesen has rejected the request of the owners of paralyze the process which, paradoxically, runs in parallel with the request for an extension, that of the closure or “licensing” of Almaraz under the only rule in force at the moment in the absence of a firm decision to extend the plant, the Ministerial Order that grants it a license for its reactors to operate only until October 2027 and November 2028. Aagesen’s decision is justified in continue with the closing process just in case, In the end, the owners decide that it is not worth it for them to make the investments that the CSN might ask of them to continue operating.

Decision of this Government… or the next

Depending on the requests that the CNS can make to keep Almaraz operating, this will also be the case. the length of time the entire process takes. While among the owners They do not start to estimate a deadline, From the Government there is talk of months or, directly, years, depending on the adaptations or repairs that the nuclear technicians could request from the owners of Almaraz.

The CNS report is bindingwhether it determines that it is not possible to authorize the extension or with regard to the actions that the owners would eventually have to carry out for Almaraz to continue operating. But it is not for the Governmentwhich in the end will decide on an extension taking into account what the nuclear experts say but also another series of factors when drafting a new Ministerial Order that sets a new date for the plant’s operating period.

For now, Aagesen has avoided committing to authorizing the extension if the Nuclear Security Council gives the green light, thus gaining time before eventually detonating the ‘H bomb’ within the Governmenta possible extension of the life of the nuclear power plant that the small partner, Add rejects outright.

According to the long terms, even years, that come from government sources, the decision may not be up to this Government and that move on to the next Executive.