Physicist Manuel Fernández Ordóñez told the Canary Islands Parliament’s ecological transition committee on Tuesday that it is obvious that it does not make sense to install a large nuclear power plant in the archipelago, but rather “small reactors modular”, with up to 300 megawatts (Mw) of power, which produce electricity but are also effective for water desalination.
At the suggestion of Vox, Fernández Ordóñez, graduate in particle physics and doctor in nuclear physics, responded to doubts raised by the groups, including the promoter, about the viability of nuclear energy in the Canary Islands. In fact, this is not the first time that the regional Parliament has proposed the installation of this type of energy on the Islands. The architect and doctor of economic, social and legal sciences Gonzalo Melián already did this last May during a session of the parliamentary commission on the demographic challenge.
On this occasion, the physicist Fernández Ordóñez, who claims to have in-depth knowledge of the energy system of the Canary Islands because his father worked in the construction of power plants on several islands, indicated that it was not logical to establish a large nuclear reactor. in the archipelago due to the importance of its energy demand.
However, in India, Russia, Argentina and other countries, small nuclear reactors and modular microreactors produce up to 300 MW of power and are scaled according to demand, so that they can meet the needs of these islands . like El Hierro and La Gomera.
Among other advantages, these microreactors have advanced safety designs and are modular, that is, they are mass-produced on assembly lines, which reduces production costs, since they are also transported and assembled at destination.
They have greater flexibility and adaptability to energy needs and are suitable for a very wide range of applications, from electricity production to water desalination, continued Fernández Ordóñez, who assured that this type of installations also requires less total investment and its environmental impact is “very small.”
Concerning the doubts expressed by the deputies as to the impact of a nuclear installation on a tourist territory, the physicist asked the parliamentarians which country has the most tourists in Europe and which is the one which has the most power stations nuclear weapons, since The answer is the same: France.
The same thing is happening in Spain, with Catalonia as a leader in tourism and nuclear energy, for which he also cited the presence in Tarragona of theme parks near the Vandellós power plant.
Concerning radioactive waste, he admitted that it is “very dangerous” but also “very little” in volume, since a pellet of nuclear fuel the size of a Parcheesi die provides the electricity consumed by a citizen of a developed country for four years, and with 20 pills, the equivalent of a ping-pong ball, which he consumes throughout his life.
“In other words, the volume of waste is very low compared to that generated by coal for decades”, as detailed by the nuclear physicist, who clarified that waste is not a technical problem but a problem of perception social.
The nuclear industry has been managing waste safely for years and in the case of Spain, in a “perfectly safe” way by Enresa, and in the Spanish case this issue is managed by storage while for d In other countries, these are resources used as fuel for other, more advanced reactors.
Regarding the risks linked to the presence of nuclear power plants in areas subject to natural phenomena such as volcanism and earthquakes, Manuel Fernández Ordóñez clarified that the largest earthquake recorded in the Canary Islands in 300 years was a 6 ,1 in Tenerife and, he said, “it’s nothing.” for a nuclear power plant. »
In fact, the Fukushima plant in Japan reached 8.9 on the Richter scale, releasing 15,000 times more energy than the aforementioned Tenerife plant and the plant responded perfectly, as the reactors shut down automatically , but what happened next was the arrival of a tsunami that exceeded the height of the installation.
Fernández Ordóñez stressed that nuclear energy is clean, as determined by the EU, that it is “quite mature” and that it constitutes the energy of the future, since it currently produces a fifth of electricity worldwide and it is estimated that by 2050 demand will have doubled in this area of the planet.
Among the 25 countries with the highest GDP in the OECD, 22 have nuclear energy or are developing its implementation, which is why, according to him, Spain “is left alone, against the tide” , and is wrong to propose the closure of the power plants. nuclear.
Energy “should not have political colors and there is no reason” to cease the activities of the installations which produce 20 percent of the electricity of the peninsula, the equivalent of the consumption of 15 million homes, said Fernández Ordóñez.
The alternatives to the closure of nuclear power plants “are much worse”, according to him, with mining waste which contaminates rivers, lakes and aquifers “in perpetuity” and emissions of several tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, stressed the specialist. , to also emphasize that there is still a long way to go in terms of penetration of renewable energies.
“We are at an inflection point where continuing to decarbonize starts to get expensive and the bills don’t work. Removing nuclear energy and replacing it with renewable energy is a bad idea, because in the end we will use more gas, as is the case in Germany,” he warned.
The challenge is enormous and “we will not achieve it only with renewable energies”, explained the physicist, because a 100% renewable system, for which he gave the example of the Canary Islands, would require “oversizing” of the installations installed. electricity and the land occupied by the installations to cope with periods of low wind or nighttime darkness.
On the contrary, a nuclear power plant provides electricity regardless of climatic factors and, without the Cofrentes plant in Valencia, a general blackout would have occurred after the damage, he added.
The physicist reiterated that small nuclear reactors would be perfectly viable for the Canary Islands to help decarbonize the electricity system and move towards a truly sustainable system, while insisting that on a global level these micropower plants will also be necessary to other uses in those that now use fossil fuels, such as the production of steel, cement, plastics, and fertilizers, “the vast majority of everything we need to live as well as we do.”
