Government uses Ukraine war resolution to regulate soils contaminated with radioactivity

The government took advantage of a measure to “mitigate the economic and social consequences of the Ukraine war” to regulate the condition of soil contaminated with radiation in Spain. This resolution was preceded by the inclusion of this final provision Country.

The text, published in the official state newspaper this Wednesday, amends the 1964 Francoist Law on Nuclear Energy and defines it as soil contaminated with radiation concentrations that poses an “unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.” And he adds that land with limited use will be the level that gives it some use. In both cases they will be declared by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Legislative change indicates that owners of potentially contaminated land or owners of activities that may contaminate land with radiation should inform the government of the condition of the land where the activity has taken place or is planned to take place.

In this way, the Ministry of Ecological Transition will be able to establish an official list of soils or lands that are contaminated or where activities are restricted by the presence of radiation. So far, the Nuclear Security Council has identified six zones, but says it has failed to declare them because there was no legal basis for doing so.

This list includes Palomares (Almeria), Mendana Wetlands (Huelva), the confluence of the Tinto River (Huelva), the Hondon (Murcia region), the Flix Reservoir (Tarragona), and the Jarama River (Madrid).

The legal uncertainty of these radioactive soils implies, for example, that land clearing in Palomares, where a U.S. plane carrying four atomic bombs crashed, has remained inaccessible for more than half a century.