Spain’s government said yesterday that it would review security measures at all its six nuclear power plants in the wake of the ongoing disaster in Japan.

“A review of the security systems of all the reactors in the country will take place to learn as many lessons as possible from” what happened in Japan, Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian told parliament.
“Specifically, a supplementary seismic survey has been requested as well as a study on the risk of flooding,” he added.
However, he said that the country’s atomic power plants were “safe”.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told parliament that the government has set up a “monitoring unit” which would “be in contact with the Spanish citizens in Japan, offer full support to workers and materials to the government of Japan ... and assess the consequences of what happened to Japan’s nuclear system”.
Zapatero vowed during general elections in 2004 and 2008 to gradually phase out nuclear power when the lifespan of the country’s six nuclear plants expired.
But he has since softened his stance, and in July 2009 the government said it would extend the operating licence for the Garona plant for another two years until July 2013.
Built in 1971, it is the country’s oldest nuclear reactor.
Ecologists in Action, a Spanish environmental umbrella group urged the government Tuesday to close the Garona plant, which it described as the “twin” of Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima plant.
“For Ecologists in Action, what happened in Japan marks a before and after for nuclear power plants,” it said.
“No one can seriously argue that Garona – which is in worse shape than was (Japan’s) Fukushima I plant – can continue to operate for several more years,” the organisation warned in a statement.
The group will stage protests calling for a “sensible” timetable for the closure of Spain’s six nuclear plants tonight in 25 Spanish cities, including Madrid.
Activist Greenpeace on Sunday also urged the Spanish government to stick to its promise to shut down  the country’s nuclear plants in the wake of the crisis in Japan.
“What has happened in Japan reminds us that nuclear energy is very dangerous, even when it is developed in a highly advanced country like Japan,” Carlos Bravo, director of Greenpeace’s anti-nuclear campaign in Spain, told public television TVE.