Palomares clean-up not the responsibility of Spain’s Nuclear Safety Council

THE Spanish government’s legal service maintained that the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) was not responsible for eliminating radioactivity in Palomares.

 Palomares was the 1966 scene of a “nuclear accident” when four unarmed thermonuclear bombs were released during a mid-air crash between two US aircraft.

Three fell on Palomares, contaminating a 2-square kilometre area, some of which still needs cleaning up and which environmentalist group Ecologistas en Accion insists is the CSN’s responsibility.

According to the Abogacia del Estado lawyers, the Royal Decree covering emergency measures to offset the consequences of the Ukrainian war meant that the CSN was not obliged to respond in court to Ecologistas en Accion’s claims that it should deal with any remaining Palomares contamination.

The Royal Decree clarified “indubitably” that the central government, via its Environment Ministry, was competent in this respect, the state lawyers declared.

Should doubts remain regarding the CSN’s obligation to set a deadline for decontaminating Palomares, the anti-crisis measures made necessary by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine meant that imposing decontamination activities “is not, and never has been” within the CSN’s remit, they said.