On January 17, 1966, four nuclear bombs fell on Palomares (Almeria), two of which exploded and They scattered the nine kilos of plutonium they contained throughout the area, and now the National Court is relaunching the event.
They have already passed 58 years since the crash between two American planes and since then, the consequences of radioactivity have been studied but without adopting palliative measures.
Interest in studying the consequences of radioactivity on living beings has led to will take advantage of this event to monitor the effects of fissile materials on living beingsincluding humans.
Agreement between the United States and Spain
It was in 1966 that the Otero-Hall agreement was signed to be able to carry out their research on a plot of land where nine kilos of radioactive material were scattered throughout Palomares, they even built two tombs of 3,000 and 1,000 m³ where they were buried. Today, the tombs remain in the same state as in 1966.
Two magistrates of the National Court describe the situation thus, describing that the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) affirms that In Palomares, not only is a radiological monitoring program carried outbut rather an open-air laboratory to study the behavior of fissile materials released into the natural environment.
In other words, they conclude thatThey use the inhabitants of Palomares, the fauna and flora and the environment in general for scientific experimentswithout their consent, which is contrary to Article 6 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.
Admission for treatment
According to the latest news, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the National Court has agreed to process the appeal filed by Ecologistas en Acción p.to undertake the cleanup of land contaminated by americium and plutonium in Palomares in order to decide whether it is appropriate to order and give a deadline to the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERTD) to implement the rehabilitation plan for the area.
According to Ecologistas en Acción, “the current danger is that plutonium will transform into americium. Plutonium emits alpha radiation which do not pass through the skin, so the only danger is ingesting or inhaling a particle, but plutonium transforms into americium which emits gamma radiation, that pass through the human body“.
“Now it’s dangerous to approach the fence contaminated land because the radiation from americium reaches passers-by who approach it,” the organization said in 2022.
Processing of the appeal
In a decree published this Monday, consulted by Europa Press, he accepts process the call by the ordinary procedure before the alleged dismissal due to administrative silence concerning the request that the environmental organization submitted to the Ministry of Ecological Transition on November 1, 2023 concerning the remediation of contaminated land.
Likewise, it provides that the administrative file be transferred to Ecologistas en Acción at the same time as offers 20 days to submit your claim in this regardset the amount and request the means of proof that you consider necessary with regard to your claims.
The National Court already accepted jurisdiction to hear this appeal in July this year after the Central Administrative Litigation Court number 8 decided to open the procedure last April in response to the parquet criterion in relation to the parquet positionwhich granted jurisdiction to the High Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM).
Ukraine as an example
The Central Administrative Contentious Tribunal has already accepted the criteria of the Public Ministry, for which the Secretary of State for Energy of the ministry is responsible for “developing” the radioactive soil decontamination from Palomares cwith the temporary storage of 6,000 cubic meters of waste.
In this sense, Judge Celestino Salgado highlighted an article of the Nuclear Energy Law included in the Royal Decree by which Urgent measures are adopted within the framework of the National Plan for Response to the Economic and Social Consequences of the War in Ukrainewhich establishes that the MITERD, through the Secretary of State for Energy and following a report from the Nuclear Safety Council, may declare soil or land as radiologically contaminated.
“The rejection for administrative silence of a request in this matter is the subject of an appeal whose resolution falls under the responsibility of a Secretary of State“The jurisdiction corresponds to the Administrative Disputes Chamber of the National Court,” determined the magistrate-judge.
Sanctions
The organization has repeatedly asked the ministry to send it the administrative file relating to the remediation of contaminated soil in order to decide this question of jurisdiction. even warning the authority with a sanction or to official liable in the event of non-compliance.
The conservation group took the initiative last February, 58 years after four thermonuclear bombs accidentally fell on the neighborhood in a mid-air collision and in the face of evidence from two U.S. Air Force planes.let everything stay the same“.
Government inaction
The decision to take the matter to court the situation of “inaction” which lasts over time is motivated by the “silence» by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge at Ecologistas en Acción demands to “set a deadline” to “achieve” The rehabilitation plan for the area that the government has always maintained, the American administration must execute it.
This is the sSecond time the National Court appeals to impose a deadline to carry out cleanliness and orderand that while waiting to find a definitive storage facility for the radioactive materials, the approximately 6,000 cubic metres of waste obtained after the treatment of the 50,000 cubic metres of land planned by Ciemat and the Nuclear Safety Council be temporarily deposited.
For the first time, the court ruled in 2019 that the CSN “I had no power” to carry out the requests of the environmental organization, although He did not indicate which body should do it..
Trial in Strasbourg
In parallel, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) also announced that it would study the lawsuit filed by Ecologistas en Acción against Spain for “the lack of solution” to the “radiological emergency” experienced in Palomares since 1958 and for the “inaction” of “successive governments” to put an end to a “prolonged situation” that has put “people’s lives in danger.”
The Registry of the Strasbourg Court opened a file in early June to study the claimwhich will be examined “as soon as possible” on the basis of the documents and information provided by the conservation group last February.
The group stresses that the residents of Palomares have been “subjected” to “scientific experiments without your consent” and states that “they were allowed to ingest and inhale radioactive particles” with the “aim of studying” the consequences of “plutonium on health” until “the year 2009”, within the framework of the “Índalo” project agreed between Spain and the United States, which are described as “degrading treatment”.
Unique case in Spain
“The radioactive contamination of Palomares is a unique case in the history of Spain and is still pending resolution and no Spanish government has adopted any palliative measure“, the only one being the fencing of a large part of the affected area, which ended in 2011, although to this day there is still contaminated land outside the fence where people and livestock move freely,” he says.
The trial asks the ECHR This goes into the “heart of the problem” that Palomares faces, recognizing this extreme, and also requests the annulment of the decision of the National Courtconfirmed by the Supreme Court (TS) in November 2022, which considered that the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) was not competent to carry out the clean-up of radioactivity in the area without determining which organism was responsible.
