The Spanish dependence on nuclear energy represents 18 per cent of the electric consumption, which generates tons of nuclear waste which disposal is a headache for the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

This shows how unsustainable this energy source is.

In fact, several municipalities governed by the ruling party (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) are against accepting the “offer” of becoming nuclear cemeteries despite Madrid’s willingness.

The Spanish organization Ecologistas en Accion expressed its opposition to a Centralized Temporary Warehouse in Valladolid, known as nuclear cemetery and they have offered support to the neighbors from the affected communities.

Francisco Castejón, member of Ecologistas en Acción told Real World Radio that the substances the government wants to “temporarily” dispose of are hazardous for thousands of years and therefore they are avoiding having a social debate on this matter.

The Spanish government has had backdoor negotiations for almost two years to have the municipalities offer themselves as candidates to take the nuclear waste. The “retribution” includes creating temporary jobs and annual 6 million euro in compensations for the municipalities – some of them have around 200 residents.

Castejón also exposed that many mayors who offered their towns as candidates for the nuclear cemeteries, work in the nuclear industry themselves.

“From an aesthetic as well as from a legal point of view, this is quite sad,” he told Real World Radio.

Ecologistas en Acción believes that the call for applications to host the nuclear waste cemetery has been a failure and than only ten out of 8,000 municipalities in the Spanish state have applied.

He criticized the state-owned corporation that manages nuclear waste (ENRESA) for surveying the people to look for candidates when it saw that the term granted to submit applications was about to expire and there were hardly any.

The procedure to accept applications and to establish the place for waste disposal could take around 6 months, according to Castejón and “in that period we will try to ensure the citizen opposition to this kind of facilities”.