European Nuclear Society
e-news Issue 36 Spring 2012
http://www.euronuclear.org/e-news/e-news-36/sne-news.htm

SNE NEWS

This year the Spanish Nuclear Society, SNE, once again organised its winter seminar. It was entitled Nuclear Power Plants in 2011: Experiences and Perspectives. Spanish nuclear industry representatives discussed issues relevant to nuclear power plant operation in 2011 and focused on the future of the nuclear industry. University representatives, including both teachers and students, also participated in the seminar.

This year, the Special Session was devoted to the subject Energy crossroads in Europe and was moderated by Lola Morales, President of the Spanish Nuclear Society. The guest speakers were Alejo Vidal-Quadras, Vice President of the European Parliament (EP) and Eduardo Montes, President of UNESA. The basic message that they gave to attendees was that due to Europe’s high dependence on energy the decision of some countries to abandon their nuclear programme is likely to lead to an increase of CO₂ emissions and electricity prices.  Meanwhile in Spain, where the situation is difficult due to a fall in demand in 2011 of 1.9 % on account of the economic situation, an upward trend in the cost of electricity, an accumulated deficit rate due to regulated activities and an increase in CO₂ emissions by 32% caused by increased coal generation has meant that the decision to maintain the current nuclear programme has been shown to be a more than adequate response.

The SNE’s General Assembly was held at the end of the seminar.

The 38^th Annual Meeting of SNE will be held from 17- 19 October of 2012, in Cáceres, hosted by IBERDROLA. All relevant information about the meeting can be found at: www.reunionanualsne.es.

The Nuclear España Best Article Prize was awarded this year to a paper entitled: The added value of replica simulators in the operation of nuclear power plants, which was written by Pedro Díaz, Norberto Rivero and Fernando Ortega, from TECNATOM. The Award Committee also gave an Honorific Mention to the issues of the magazine 40^th Anniversary of the Santa Maria de Garoña Nuclear Power Plant and Almaraz Nuclear Power Plant.

SNE recently organised a cycle of three conferences on The Accident at the Fukushima Plant. The initiative met with great success, as witnessed by the attendance. The conferences were entitled “The development of accidents: lights, shadows and opportunities”, “The plan of stabilisation and the control of the plant and the consequences of the accident from the point of view of environmental contamination” and “Actions after the accident: Radiological impact and measures to protect the population. IAEA missions”

The SNE also recently signed a collaboration agreement with the Mexican Nuclear Society.

The Spanish Nuclear Young Generation has scheduled a cycle of 6 conferences on the theme of Experiences gained with the Construction of Spanish Nuclear Power Plants.

Spanish NPP News

The contribution of the Spanish nuclear power plants in 2011 to the country’s total electricity production was 19.6%.

The government has granted the operating license for 10 more years to the Ascó and Cofrentes NPPs.

Finally, Almaraz NPP’s Unit II has increased its electric power by 65 MW.

© European Nuclear Society, 2012