Zapatero vows nuclear energy cuts in Spain

[AFP, 9 January] Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has promised that if he is re-elected on 9 March he will reduce the country's dependence on nuclear power. Speaking at an economic forum in Madrid, he said: "My position is not to increase nuclear energy in our country but rather to progressively reduce it and to make a collective effort in favour of renewable energy." Zapatero added, "It would be easier to say that we are going to increase nuclear energy but it is better for us, as a country, to accept the difficult and ambitious challenge that our alternative energy is renewable and not nuclear." Zapatero's Socialist Party's manifesto in elections four years ago included a progressive downsizing of the country's nuclear energy programme. Spain currently has eight nuclear reactors generating one fifth of its electricity.

Further information