Marc Altés and Guillem Sanchis, Econucleares Founders, January '24
Marc Altés and Guillem Sanchis, Econucleares Founders
Meet Marc and Guillem, the duo trying to save Spain’s 7 nuclear plants, the country’s largest source of clean energy.
2024 is set to be a big year for the founders of Econucleares, Guillem Sanchis and Marc Altés. The fledgling pro-nuclear organization is hosting Spain’s first ever Stand Up for Nuclear rally, on March 23rd, in an effort to save the country’s nuclear reactors from premature closure.
Key processes like license extensions and fuel procurement must begin by May 2024 to prevent the first plant (central), Almaraz 1, from shutting down in 2027 according to Sanchis. Altés called it the “year of the battlefront.”
Growing up in Barcelona, Altés and Sanchis had both always been drawn to science. After graduating with a degree in physics, Sanchis worked as a science and math teacher for several years, before becoming passionate about nuclear energy. Altés said he has always had two passions: biology and nuclear energy.
Both felt calls to be nuclear engineers, and the pair met in university, where they came to the conclusion after several discussions that the main obstacles to the nuclear industry were not technical in nature but one of public relations and communications.
As a desire to fight to save Spain’s nuclear fleet emerged and the pair attended a Stand Up for Nuclear event in Berlin in April 2023, the idea of creating a communications and advocacy organization crystallized. Econucleares (green nuclear advocates) was born.
Guillem Sanchis, the co-founder of Econucleares and a Spanish nuclear energy activist.
Early goals were to dispel myths about nuclear energy and to mobilize the nuclear industry. Through social media advocacy on Instagram, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn, Sanchis and Altés aimed to fill the gap in nuclear communication in Spain.
“We know we have the facts on our side, the nuclear side. We know it's 24/7, it's clean, it's reliable. It takes a minimum, minimum amount of land,” Sanchis said. “But of course, we also know that if the main problem were the facts, we would not be having this discussion, we would just have nuclear power everywhere.”
Altés said there was little nuclear activism in Spain before they emerged. The newly formed group attended COP 28 in Dubai to advocate for Spanish nuclear. While their focus is on Spain, as a Spanish language nuclear media outlet, the pair said they have garnered some followers from Latin America and would like to collaborate with Latin countries moving forward.
Outside of his activist work, Altés works at IDOM, managing radioactive waste and the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, which he said is essential in obtaining clean and safe nuclear energy. Sanchis, working in the field of thermal hydraulics, runs computer simulations on power plants to study their behavior.
In terms of the future of Spain’s nuclear plants, which provide ⅕ of the country’s electricity, Altés is more pessimistic than Sanchis. Altés said that because people sometimes follow fear or hysteria rather than reason, it is not impossible all 7 reactors could be closed.
Marc Altés, co-founder of Eco-nucleares, and Spanish pro-nuclear advocate.
Altés cited the case of Germany who he said he thinks is often more rational than Spain, but still managed to shut down their reactors.
“I don’t think it’s impossible in Spain if the government doesn’t change course. That is the key. The paradigm has to shift within Spain,” Altés said. “The option of closing nuclear plants cannot be attractive, politically or otherwise. While closing the plants would be a shame, there is still a window to save them.”
Sanchis said he feels that if some of the reactors are closed, it will lead to blackouts, a large enough problem to save the rest.
“So, the way I see it, our task is to make sure we realize that that's a bad idea before the blackouts arrive, not after,” Sanchis said.
Spain’s case is more than just about saving the plants, Sanchis said. It’s about defeating the anti-nuclear movement and feeling that led to the closures in Germany and Belgium.
For Altés the Spanish nuclear industry remains its own largest obstacle. It does not advocate for itself. Econucleares has been reaching out to Nuclear unions to mobilize the workers who will lose their jobs if the plants close.
“Currently the Spanish nuclear sector is completely paralyzed and frozen. The problem we face is that the nuclear sector doesn’t move a finger, it stays frozen,” Altés said. “It’s necessary to organize and mobilize these people. Workers at these plants will be without a job. Yet, at the moment, they are not helping our efforts. As nuclear, we must react to what is happening here in Spain.”