The physicist Manuel Fernández Ordóñez stated this Tuesday in the Ecological Transition commission of the Parliament of the Canary Islands that it is obvious that it does not make sense to install a large nuclear power plant in the Archipelago, but rather “small modular reactors”, of up to 300 megawatts (Mw). of power, which generate electricity but are also effective for desalinating water.
At the suggestion of Vox, Fernández Ordóñez, who has a degree in Particle Physics and a doctor in Nuclear Physics, has responded to the doubts raised by the groups, including the proponent, regarding the viability of nuclear energy in the Canary Islands. In fact, it 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 in Economic-Social and Legal Sciences Gonzalo Melián already did it last May in a session of the parliamentary commission on the demographic challenge.
On this occasion, the physicist Fernández Ordóñez, who claims to have extensive knowledge of the Canary Islands’ energy system because his father worked in the implementation of power plants on several islands, has indicated that it does not make sense to establish a large nuclear reactor in the archipelago due to the size of its energy demand.
However, it has continued, in India, Russia, Argentina and other countries, small modular nuclear reactors and microreactors operate that produce up to 300 MW of power and that are adapted depending on demand, so that they could supply the needs of islands. such as 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 and this reduces production costs, since they are also transported and assembled at the destination.
They have greater flexibility and adaptability to energy needs and are suitable for a very wide range of applications, from electricity generation to water desalination, continued Fernández Ordóñez, who has assured that this type of installations also require less total investment and its environmental impact is “very small.”
Regarding the doubts expressed by the deputies regarding the impact of a nuclear installation on a tourist territory, the physicist asked the parliamentarians which is the country with the largest number of tourists in Europe and which is the one with the most nuclear power plants, since The answer is the same: France.
The same thing happens in Spain, with Catalonia as a tourism and nuclear energy leader, for which he also cited how in Tarragona there are theme parks close to the Vandellós power plant.
Regarding radioactive waste, he has admitted that they are “very dangerous” but also “very little” in volume, since a nuclear fuel pellet the size of a Parcheesi dice 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.
“That is, the volume of waste is very low if compared to that generated by coal for decades,” as detailed by the nuclear physicist, who has clarified that waste is not a technical problem but one of social perception.
The nuclear industry has been managing waste safely for years and in the case of Spain, in an “excellently safe” way by Enresa, and in the Spanish case this issue is managed through storage while for other countries it is about resources used as fuel for other more advanced reactors.
Regarding the risks derived from having nuclear power plants in areas with natural phenomena such as volcanism and earthquakes, Manuel Fernández Ordóñez has specified that the largest earthquake recorded in the Canary Islands in 300 years was a 6.1 in Tenerife and, he said, “That’s nothing for a nuclear power plant.”
In fact, the Fukushima plant in Japan reached 8.9 on the Richter scale, releasing energy 15,000 times greater than the aforementioned Tenerife plant and the plant responded perfectly, as the reactors stopped automatically, but what happened next was the arrival of a tsunami that exceeded the height of the facility.
Fernández Ordóñez has stressed that nuclear energy is clean, as the EU has determined, it is “quite mature” and is the energy of the future, since it currently produces a fifth of the world’s electricity and it is estimated that by 2050 demand will have doubled in this area on the planet.
Of the 25 countries with the highest GDP in the OECD, 22 have nuclear energy or are developing its implementation, which is why, in his opinion, Spain “is left alone, against the current”, and is wrong to propose the closure of plants nuclear.
Energy “should not have political colors nor are there reasons” to cease operations in facilities that produce 20 percent of the electricity on the Peninsula, the equivalent of the consumption of 15 million homes, Fernández Ordóñez has stated.
The alternatives to the closure of nuclear plants “are much worse”, from his point of view, with mining waste that contaminates rivers, lakes and aquifers “in perpetuity” and many tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, the specialist has pointed out. , to also point out that there is still a long way to go in terms of the penetration of renewable energies.
“We are at an inflection point where continuing to decarbonize is starting to become costly and the bills are not working out. Removing nuclear energy to replace it with renewables is a bad idea, because in the end more gas will be used, as is happening in Germany,” he warned.
The challenge is enormous and “we are not going to achieve it only with renewables,” the physicist explained, since a 100% renewable system, for which he has given the Canary Islands as an example, would require “an oversizing” of the installed power and the land. occupied by facilities to cope with periods of low wind or night darkness.
On the contrary, a nuclear power plant supplies electricity regardless of climatic factors and, if it had not been for the Cofrentes plant in Valencia, a general blackout would have occurred after the damage, he added.
The physicist has reiterated that small nuclear reactors would be perfectly viable for the Canary Islands to help decarbonize the electrical system and move towards a truly sustainable one, while insisting that, at a global level, these micro plants will also be necessary for other uses in those that now use fossil fuels, such as the production of steel, cement, plastics and fertilizers, “a vast majority of everything we need to live as well as we do.”
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