Nuclear energy in Portugal

Nuclear energy in Portugal is very limited and strictly non-commercial. Portugal has one 1MW research reactor located in the National Nuclear Research Centre at Sacavem. Further nuclear energy activities are not planned in the near future. Other nuclear activities include medical applications such as radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine, as well as use of industrial radioactive sources.

In 1971, Portugal planned to build an 8,000 MW nuclear power plant to be completed by 2000. Plans were delayed until 1995 when it was decided to not proceed with the project. In 2004, the Government of Portugal rejected a proposal to reconsider its decision. After the Carnation Revolution, a military coup in April 1974 which overthrew the Estado Novo regime, projects for the construction of nuclear power plants have since been postponed or dismissed by the government.

Presently Portugal has no spent fuel. In September 2007, the core of the Portuguese Research Reactor (RPI) was converted from high enriched to low enriched fuel, all enriched uranium as well as all spent fuel has been shipped to the USA in the framework of the “United States Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel Acceptance Program”. Liquid effluents produced in the RPI, as well as effluents of medical applications are stored locally, and later discharged in accordance with national law. Solid radioactive waste and discarded sealed sources are centrally stored in the national intermediate radioactive waste storage.

Portugal first began developing nuclear energy in 1948, when the Instituto para a Alta Cultura (Superior Culture Institute) proposed the creation of a commission of geologists and physicists to study uranium supplies and mining technologies to the Ministry for National Education. The project was declined. At the same time, the 2nd National Engineering Meeting suggested the meeting participants to propose a general plan for the future utilization of atomic energy in Portugal.

The first approved proposal arrived in 1952, after an early rejection in 1950, when the National Education Ministry presented an item for the National General Budget to specifically finance studies related to the development of nuclear energy in the country. During October 1952, the temporary Commission for Nuclear Energy Studies was created and formed a partnership with the Portuguese universities, becoming the first centers for nuclear energy research in Portugal, both pure and applied.

...
Wikipedia