RE: Ribera passes the hot potato from the closure of the Berkeley uranium mine to the CSN4 Sep 2020 15:45
In July, the CSN reported favorably and unanimously on the extension of the prior site authorization that Berkeley requested in 2015, which expired in September of this year. The ministry, according to the sources consulted, should rule this month on that extension. It will not. The department explains that the Berkeley file is still being processed, pending the CSN report on the construction authorization. The extension and construction request are separate reports but, according to the ministry, they must be coordinated and analyzed jointly.
In practice, the strategy of the Ministry of Ecological Transition is to wait for the new report from the Nuclear Safety Council to see if it provides arguments to support the possible closure . The wait brings controversy. Sources consulted in the CSN maintain that Ecological Transition must rule on the extension requested by Berkeley, whose term expires on the 17th of this month. Otherwise, they say, it could be interpreted that the project cannot continue.