158 | nº 31, pp. 153-166 | doxa.comunicación
July-December of 2020
Informational autonomy in Nuclear Communication: analysis of current legislation
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
Another key European nuclear directive is that which refers to radioactive waste and the handling of spent fuel12 (2011). One objective of this directive is the provision of effective information and the establishment of dialogue with the public to promote transparency.
3.1.3. The Spanish setting
Spain, as a Member State of the European Union, complies with these directives on nuclear matters and must assume, in their totality, all that which refers to informing the public and to transparency.
A historical review of nuclear legislation in Spain to see the legislation on the relation between the State and the Spanish people –in that which pertains to information provided to public opinion–, allows us to say that the 1964 law on nuclear energy13 (hereinafter “LEN”), does not refer to the necessity of the provision of information by the competent authorities on nuclear matters (Ministry, Energy Board, or nuclear plants) to Spanish citizens.
The LEN is the keystone for the development of nuclear energy in Spain and, despite having undergone several modifications14, specific indications are not given to the nuclear plants on how to manage and organize their communication with the public.
In the interviews carried out for this study it was pointed out that communication by the nuclear plants to the Nuclear Safety Council15 (Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear in Spanish, hereinafter “CSN”) is stipulated, that is, it must be informed of any events that take place in the installation16: “Anything that happens –however minor it may be– we have to tell them” (Alcázar, 2016). Notification of these events may be given after an hour or after 24 hours. In the former case, they may be events of greater importance from an operational point of view and are associated with a press release by the plant. In this case, the CSN also informs any interest groups of the incident via its own means.
Although the nuclear plants inform the regulator of any operational incident in the plant and post notification of these events on their web page, communication with the public has a protocol when an accident occurs (Cobos & Recoder, 2019a).
The Nuclear Safety Council –an agency independent of the State Administration– does include amongst its functions that of informing the public through the mass media, publications, its Information Centre, Internet, or Twitter17. This commitment of the CSN to public opinion is reflected in the law that created the agency (15/1980) and in the objectives
12 The 2011/70/Euratom Directive obliges each member State to set up a storage facility for radioactive waste in their territory and to establish an independent regulatory organ (In Spain this is the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear).
13 Law 25/1964 on Nuclear Energy is a pre-constitutional summary of 97 articles which started the development of the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Spain.
14 Law 33/2007, Law 11/2009, Law 12/2011, Law 15/2012.
15 The Nuclear Safety Council is an agency which is independent of the State with its own jurisprudence and is the competent authority in matters of nuclear regulation, vigilance, and control in Spain.
16 The Council’s instructions (IS-10) establish those aspects which must be reported to the regulatory authority.
17 The CSN is the only authority in Spain on nuclear affairs –together with the Spanish Nuclear Forum and the Spanish Nuclear Society– which has had an account on this social network since March 2011: @CSN_es.
