From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Welcome to the Madhouse!
Spain is aiming to close its nuclear plants by 2035, joining a small number of developed countries pledging a nuclear phaseout as others look to invest further into the energy source.
The government confirmed the plans, Reuters reported, as it introduced energy measures relating to renewable energy. The shutdown of the plants will begin in 2027, and their deconstruction — which is estimated to cost 20.2 billion euros, or $22.4 billion — will be paid for by the plants’ operators, according to government officials.
Spain’s nuclear fleet consists of seven operating reactors, generating about a fifth of its electricity.
Spain joins other nations, such as Germany and Switzerland, in pledging to move away from nuclear power. Earlier this year, Germany closed down its last three remaining power plants after promising more than a decade ago to phase out nuclear energy.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/spain-pledges-phase-out-nuclear-by-2035
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Let’s not forget.
Spanish people have been known to produce electricity from solar… at night !
So, all will be A-OK ! 😉
Don Quixote to the rescue.
But didn’t he attack the windmills?
Stupid is as Stupid does …
😉
This is only a “pledge” which is a political statement to appease the alarmists and to obtain their votes … and then back to business as usual — except with more government control and less freedoms.
What could possibly go wrong?
Because that will reduce CO2.
Pledges, like polls, are worth exactly what one pays to get them.
Oh . . . did I just hear someone whisper “Paris Climate Accord”? . . .
From the above article:
“The shutdown of the plants will begin in 2027, and their deconstruction — which is estimated to cost 20.2 billion euros, or $22.4 billion — will be paid for by the plants’ operators, according to government officials.”
(my bold emphasis added)
Yeah, right . . . if any Spanish citizen/taxpayer/electric utility customer buys into that, they fully deserve the sure-to-follow BOHIC.
I’m getting too old to keep up with all these acronyms. Having searched it, I have to admit, that they’ve been doing it to the UK, for several decades 😄
I first heard the acronym in the early 80’s expressed as BOHICA by a guy that claimed to have invented it by having buttons made up to express his displeasure at company meetings relating to new programs.
For those unfamiliar with it, Bend Over Here It Comes Again.
The meaning of almost any acronym should be added in conversations with people you don’t know, and who probably are not familiar with them. Laziness in writing is a lack of respect for the reader.
Have a nice day, and a pleasant start of 2024 – a vry very long year! 🙂
Is “vry” an acronym? 😉
It is text speak for very.
In context with the new year it could also mean very righteous year. Hopefully we’ll get get righteous justice for the indignities foisted upon us by the elites.
FJB
France will be pleased gaining a few million more customers. Spain joins Germany in being dependent on French nuclear. (provided either of them have enough of an economy left to pay their imported power bill).
They already ramped up nuclear production like crazy in the last few years:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-energy-nuclear?tab=chart&country=~FRA
Viva La France
Production dropped the last few years, in large part due to covid restrictions causing maintenances to be stacked in the same year instead of staggered and the long term effects of Hollande teaming up with Greens to fight nuclear. Production is up 15% this year, and with Macron in office there is good chance for full recovery.
No problem, all of the Africans taking over the country will teach them how to cook and stay warm burning DUNG. No lights after dark, and besides, with no civilization left, there wouldn’t be any reason to be out after dark.
Will the DUNG, be supplied by the politicians?
They’ll make their own dung by drying their own poop on their roofs. 🙂
I was thinking more on the lines of their mouths. They talk a load of sh….. 😀
“Pledge”. Is that another word for a virtue signal?
“Pledge” is a polish, and that’s what they’re doing to their political egos.
‘…“Pledge” is a polish…’
More like a roll in glitter.
““Pledge”. Is that another word for a virtue signal?”
Often. During Johnny Depp’s libel trial with Amber Heard we learned that she hadn’t actually donated the divorce settlement to charities, as promised, but she had pledged it. She just hadn’t got round to it yet. Which is why he tried to pay it directly to the charities.
I noticed a little error in your headline, so I fixed it for you:
“Spain pledges to phase out power by 2035”
I have only one question. Why?
Interconnectors provide power from mainly France, but Morocco too who are supposed to join the nuclear powered electricity club
So they intend to out-source their power generation to.other countries? So much for cheap and secure power and I’m sure France and Morocco are simply delighted to learn that power will flow only one way rather than in both directions, which is what they no doubt believed when building those interconnectors.
Because you can’t collapse an economy nearly as easily with any base load power source in place. Sure it would eventually collapse if it only had 20% reliable power, but we are impatient for the revolution.
So when COP28 pledged (that word again) to triple nuclear power, it didn’t translate too well into Spanish?
Or German. Both countries no doubt assumed it was intended for the French and so ignored it.
France, thanks to its foresight in going nuclear, is set to become Europe’s powerhouse. Has anyone informed the idiot Sunak that there’s an opportunity here?
Sunak is like a British Winter. Dull, Grey and Wet. Mr ‘I’ll do as I am told’.
UK signed up for more nuclear at COP28. But they have been doing that for years.
You mean signing up, I presume? Pledging, planning, virtue signaling.
Certainly not installing…!
Sunak only does as he is told, like so many woke politicians they are told by Klaus what to think and what to do. He is already California dreaming, which is more a nightmare now as so many high profile residents are leaving California for very clear and obvious reasons.’
Dim-bulb Sunak is innumerate and totally ignorant of Physics or Engineering, like virtually all British politicians.
Don’t forget that Germany quit its nuclear energy programme specifically because of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. There, following an undersea earthquake, a tsunami swept across the reactors causing meltdown and catastrophe. And that is perfectly understandable isn’t it? I mean we hear regular reports of tidal waves sweeping across Germany causing widespread devastation. Goodness knows how those poor German folk cope with all those tsunamis, year after year. I mean, who would consider building nuclear power stations with all that going on…….?
Sarcasm over. The plain truth is that even if you speak really s-l-o-w-l-y to these politicians they simply can’t grasp the fundamentals of real life. The simple fact is that intellectually they are just not up to the job.
It’s not stupidity that you’re observing, John. As I said above, you can’t collapse an economy nearly as easily with any base load power source in place. They are impatient for the revolution.
Kernkraft? Nein danke.
Steinzeit? Aber sicher!
“Don’t forget that Germany quit its nuclear energy programme specifically because of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.”
It only has accelerated it, they would have done it anyways.
No, sorry. Germany quit it’s nuclear research then committed to downgrading and eliminating all nuclear in the late 70’s, early 80’s as a result of the German Greens getting captured by the Soviet anti-nuclear propaganda. What you’re seeing now is the very tail end of that disastrous policy which began long before Fukushima or even Chernobyl.
Exactly so, Richard. The success of that Soviet KGB program is precisely why Yuri Andropov was selected to be Leonid Brezhnev’s successor in 1982. As we saw with Gerhard Schroder, it was a very successful scheme of bribery and infiltration.
My recollection is, that at the exact time of the Fukushima event, there was a growing consensus that more nuclear power was a good idea.
I think I would even describe it as a groundswell of support for the new era of nuclear power plant construction.
The real shame of it is, most people to this day do not understand the real reason for what happened to those power plants.
It was not the earthquake or the tsunami, it was due to back up generators for the cooling pumps, and more specifically to the switching equipment for the power transfer when they kicked on, that did it.
A single waterproof door would have prevented the entire debacle.
Or simply moving the electrical equipment from a basement room to the roof or some such.
I will try to recover the webpage/blog/platform (?) where an article clarifying that the risks of nuclear power plants are grossly overstated. So is sound reasoning of Spanish and German politicians.
.&
“a tsunami swept across the reactors causing meltdown”
“A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt[2]) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term nuclear meltdown is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency[3] or by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.[4] It has been defined to mean the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor,[5] however, and is in common usage a reference to the core’s either complete or partial collapse.“
I was Googling to say no it was not a meltdown, but it looks like it was…
“Following a major earthquake, a 15-metre tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors, causing a nuclear accident beginning on 11 March 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days.
I do wonder what “largely melted” means, but the point is granted.
I was composing my thoughts about how STUPID this all is, while I stared at the photo of a doomed power plant ,…when I had a EUREKA moment. All power plants are purpose build structures with an emphasis on safety and efficiency. That’s the problem…the Greens and other virtue signalers place a much higher priority on “feels.” To FIX this problem is so simple. You, paint concentric pride rainbow flags around the containment tower structures, have a LGBT++++ rave on site, while you project an earth-rise and unicorn light show on the domes. Problem solved … yes, you can run an economy on vapid presentation and marketing. That plant will now have a 50+ year operating permit in no time. The sooner Power Plant Operators understand this, the better off we will all be. Now I am off to start a consulting concern.
Why can’t the nukes just identify as windmills?
A simpler solution. Draw millions of lines on the ground. Gather all the Greens and virtue signallers, and place their noses on the ground at the end of the lines. And walk away.
This has been done in France and lots of other places. EdF held competitions to do this some years ago.
Electric Art – Cruas Nuclear Cooling Towers, Rhône River, … | Flickr
or
Nuclear Coverup: 10 Cool Examples Of Cooling Tower Art – WebUrbanist
Tonto!
I hear many horses, Kemo Sabe
The Nuclear renaissance, in all its glory!
So … the same people who are promoting electric vehicles are tearing down their least expensive and most reliable source of the power needed charge the batteries in those vehicles.
When they’ve regressed to horse power (using real horses) they’ll stop using tractors to grow the organic grains and roughage that horses eat. But think how healthy everybody will be spending all day in the fields tending to the oat crop.
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/horse-care-guidelines
“But think how healthy everybody will be spending all day in the fields tending to the oat crop.”
Like in the good old days.
Invest in candles now. They’re gonna be big.
The plants are to be shut down when their licenses expire, as decided about 13 years ago. The reported decision is to continue with that plan unchanged. A similar decision was reported earlier this year. The plants will be closed when their original license runs out. No plants are being closed early.
What is interesting is the coverage. In Spain this seems to be a minor news item. It isn’t really any news.
On social media e.g. X, anti-nuke types and germans are presenting this as a major new development, another domino to fall sort of thing. One post even got a community note pointing out that this was old news.
It looks to me like an attempt to validate the German exit by pointing to others following Germany’s example. Spain is not closing plants early as the Germans have done.
P.S. the Spanish gas deal is not entirely driven by their nuke exit. It has much do with their tiff with Algeria and the fence mending with Marrocco. Spain imported gas from Algeria and exports gas to Marrocco. If you’re wondering why Algeria and Morocco don’t just cut out the middleman you’re on the right track.
The original pledge, from 13 years ago, was that Spain would phase out nuclear power ‘when wind and solar became viable.’ I guess they got fed up with waiting for that to happen then?
Muñecos de prueba.
(Crash test dummies.)
Let’s hope someone puts the brakes on this misguided pledge before it is too late and they hit the wall.
A pledge is often made to some person or entity in order to get some benefit or reward. So, to whom/what is Spain making this pledge? It cannot be its citizens.
Pledges are only ever made by people who know they won’t be around (either politically or biologically) when the day of reckoning comes…
Spain must have noticed how well the energy transition is working for Germany and is rushing to jump on the bandwagon.
So, will they be burning brown lignite to fill the energy gap?
Or, maybe, just extend their siestas?
Bruning more LNG and importing more French nuclear generation.
No worries, they will replace all those clean nuclear plants with coal fired ones once Madrileños and Baturros start freezing in the winter. maybe even bring back whale oil processing.
It is hard to fathom how people can be so profoundly stupid. Mouthing a “pledge” like this is either completely disingenuous or insane. Either way, it identifies “leaders” that are anything but.