closure

Spain thought its position regarding the closure of nuclear. That has just changed

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The debate on a possible extension of nuclear plants has returned to the scene and has turned on the media focus. The electricity insists on lengthening their operation beyond the expected, but the executive denies that formal negotiations are being maintained and refers to the conditions that already set as essential. A letter and three conditions. Iberdrola and Endesa sent a joint letter to the government will make more or less a month. In it, they proposed to reopen the debate on the progressive closure of the nuclear park – which contemplates the shutdown of the Seven reactors between 2027 and 2035– With the argument that maintaining operational some centrals would reduce the cost of electricity for consumers. According to the countrythe Government responded by another letter signed by the Ecological Transition Minister, Sara Aagesen, opening to assess the proposal under three immovable conditions: that there is no additional cost for citizens, that the security of the supply is guaranteed and that the plants comply with the standards of the Nuclear Safety Council. So far they “dialogue.” According to eldiario.esthe government considers the letter of electricity as a declaration of intentions, not a formal request. In addition, Naturgy and EDP – also minority owners of some plants – did not sign the document, which leaves Iberdrola and Endesa alone. The debate intensifies. The situation is complex for a primary reason that is not technical, but the economic viability of nuclear. As the confidential explainedelectricity consider that operating with the current fiscal charge is unfeasible if the market price does not exceed € 65-70/MWh. In contrast, projected prices are around € 55/MWh by 2030. In this context, the Endesa CEO, José Bogas, raises the government a fiscal reduction, especially autonomic taxes (such as the one already eliminated in the Valencian Community) and the Enresa rate, which finances the dismantling of the centrals and waste management. However, according to the miteco, this fiscal reduction would involve damage to citizens, and therefore clashes frontally with their red lines. Almaraz, the first thermometer. The immediate focus is at the Almaraz nuclear power plant (Cáceres), whose first reactor must close in November 2027 and the second in October 2028. Iberdrola, Endesa and Naturgy – his three owners – have not yet met to approve the necessary investments that would allow their operation beyond those dates. The meeting scheduled for June has not been held, and sector sources admit that it will not occur before September. Meanwhile, companies prepare a new proposal that, According to El Confidencialcould be presented after summer at a meeting not yet confirmed with Minister Aagesen. The plan would be to offer a tax reduction in exchange for prolonging the activity of some centrals until 2030. However, the Ministry insists: if the conditions do not change, there will be no negotiation. A hot topic in Congress. The debate is more than served from the political field. On the one hand, the Popular Party preparing one Law proposition to extend the life of nuclear. The proposal would have the support of several regional governments of the PP – as Extremadura and Community Valencian – and the parliamentary support of Junts and ERC, which have shown flexibility in Congress in relation to the revision of the nuclear calendar. However, the government has reaffirmed its position. As El Confidencial recalledPresident Pedro Sánchez was bluntly in Congress last May, accusing PP and Vox of acting as “amateur lobists” of the electric. “If companies want to keep the centrals open, they pay them, not the citizens,” he settled. Facing an ambivalent European framework. In addition, the legal position of nuclear energy in the EU adds complexity, since European regulations do not consider nuclear energy as a renewable source. This is established by Directive 2018/2001 (Red II), a vision that has also adopted Spanish legislation. However, in 2022, the European Commission took a partial turn by including this technology, under certain conditions, In the so -called “green taxonomy”next to the natural gas. This classification allows certain nuclear investments to be labeled as sustainable from the climate point of view. As Miguel Huarte expanded has indicatedthis places the nuclear in a normative gray area: it is not renewable, but free of emission in its operation. And while France or Belgium have already chosen to extend their atomic parks, Spain maintains the opposite course. Accelerating another route. At the same time, the miteco has processed this July 31 a new Royal Decree by urgent route to reinforce the electrical system. As you have indicated in a press releaseit is a technical standard that does not directly address the nuclear calendar, but it does signal to a reinforcement of the electrical system by means of supervision, electrification of the demand and promotion of energy storage. Among other measures, the proposal increases the technical control of Electricity and CNMC, promotes renewable hybridization with storage systems and limits speculation on connection points. Although the text does not mention the nuclear, it reinforces the idea that the government bet remains clear: moving towards a 100% renewable mix. A door ajar. The crossing of cards between electric and government has served more to draw red lines than to open doors. What is played, beyond the kilowatt, is the country’s energy model: one where renewables are implacable and nuclear tries to scratch time under the promise of stability. But as well He has pointed the newspaper.Without a formal proposal and without an explicit resignation to tax privileges, electricity will continue to wait at the gates of a ministry that, for now, remains firm: either they meet the conditions, or the closing calendar will continue its course. The future of Almaraz – and perhaps that of the entire nuclear park – will be decided, if, after summer. And with many more letters even to play. Image | Foronuclear Xataka | Spain was supposed to have a “antiapagones” plan. It has encountered an insurmountable obstacle: politics

After the blackout, the government defended the nuclear closure because “in Spain there is no uranium.” Reality is more complicated

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The question of uranium has returned to the forefront after the president of the Government affirm that “in Spain there is no uranium and therefore we will have to import it.” Although Spain has large uranium deposits, reality is always more complicated than the usual black or white policy. The second European country with more uranium. Spain has between 25,000 and 30,000 tons of uranium, “the second most important reserves of the European Union,” According to the geologist Jesús Martínez Frías. Both the ‘Red Book’ of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) as the National Geographic Institute (IGN) indicate the existence of resources with the possibility of exploitation in Spanish territory, mainly in the province of Salamanca. Why they stopped exploding. Spain had uranium mining, but The last mine closed in 2000 for the “exhaustion of economically exploitable mining resources”, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition. The Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE) said that production costs had exceeded 30% market prices, which made its continuity unfeasible. Two decades later, the Law 7/2021 of climate change and energy transition Truncó any new attempt To exploit the deposits: “Due to their prejudices, their cost will not be granted new exploration, research or concessions of exploitation of radioactive minerals, nor will new authorization requests be admitted.” Environmental problems. The risk of radioactive water contamination is another elephant in the room. A study Posted by Environmental Pollution In 2018 he documented “much higher” uranium concentrations than background geochemical levels near old mines abandoned in Salamanca. The levels in the soil ranged between 207.2 and 542.4 mg kg⁻¹, when the natural background levels are 29.8 mg kg⁻¹ for granite and 71.2 mg kg⁻¹ for slate. The study proposed environmental restoration measures, such as reforestation, in areas close to old farms. They are not entirely unfeasible. The political landscape has changed with the European Union in search of energy sovereignty and resources. The economic landscape too. With The price of upward uraniumthe Berkeley Minera company has a revived interest in its Retortillo project. The request for exploitation of this deposit was delivered before Law 7/2021 applied, but the Nuclear Safety Council also issued An unfavorable environmental report for “the low reliability and the high uncertainties of security analysis in geotechnical and hydrogeological aspects.” Uranium you have to enrich it. Although there was a political change that leads to the reactivation of Retry, the uranium that is extracted from the earth (natural uranium) barely contains 0.7% of Uranium-235, the necessary physiognable isotope for most nuclear reactors. It would be necessary to enrich uranium, a process that consists in increasing the concentration of uranium-235 to 3-5% levels for light water reactors, which are the most common. Spain does not have its own high -scale enriched uranium, or facilities in which to enrich uranium at the industrial level for use as fuel in nuclear centrals. Can Spain enrich uranium? Spain had the capacity to produce uranium concentrates (in the form of yellow cakes or Yellowcakes), But obtaining enriched uranium is a subsequent, technologically more complex and expensive process, dominated by a few countries. Today, 60% He leaves Russia and China. ENUSA (the national uranium company) already had difficulty replacing Russian enriched uranium after Commercial vetoes for the Ukraine War. Enriching it would be a major challenge. A change of direction. In the new geopolitical context, the European Union is promoting the reactivation of mining to ensure a sovereign supply of key materials for energy transition and defense. Spain is rich in Uranium, but also in resources such as copper, which is the second EU producer. Besides, It has lithiumcobalt, Coltán and possible lower land deposits. Seven of the 47 new Strategic Mining Projects promoted by the EU They will be developed in Spainalthough most face the rejection of environmental organizations for its environmental impact, such as the lithium mine in Cáceres. The epicenter of the debate. Discussions on Spanish uranium are a broader reflex of tensions: the strategic autonomy of resources, the imperatives of the energy transition, environmental protection and social acceptance of mining activity. In the end, the epicenter of the debate is the high cost of building and maintaining traditional nuclear plants in the face of renewable energy sources, of which Spain is world power. Only last year, Spain produced 148,999 GWh of renewable energy, 56.8% of Mix. If the blackout was A notice that the electricity is not prepared To stabilize large renewable energy fluctuations, what touches is wondering what are the investments in storage, investors, interconnections and energy sources alternative to pollutants combined cycles of gas to avoid another blackout. Everything is said regarding the closure of nuclear plants or the extraction of uranium in Spain, but the solar industry will not go anywhere. Image | Tecnatom In Xataka | In Salamanca there is a high -tech nuclear fuel bars factory that exports to all of Europe: we have visited it

tariffs, refinery closure and overproduction

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Energy expert Javier Blas He has shown Through the social network X (old Twitter) as the price of Brent barrel, it has suffered one of its greatest falls in recent decades. In just two days, I know It has collapsed $ 10.4, Brent barrel at $ 65.14. This strong descent reminds other historical falls such as the Ukraine War in 2022, the Covid-19 Pandemia and the Price War in Saudi Arabia in 2020, the 2008 global financial crisis and the Gulf War in 1991. Short. According to has had access Reuterscrude oil has been driven by The announcement of tariffs by US President Donald Trump. These tariff measures, They have given much to talkThey have generated fears about global economic growth and energy demand. A blow after another. In the last years of fluctuations and political uncertainty, we must add the closure of refineries. As has advanced Oilpriceone in five global refineries faces closing risk, despite the fact that the demand for fuel is still increasing. This imbalance between supply and infrastructure is generating additional tensions in the market. In addition, operators seem to have lost confidence in a robust and sustained recovery of energy consumption, which has led to massive positions of positions in futures markets. OPEC+ continues on the same path. In recent statements They have decided Accelerate its production increase schedule, adding 441,000 barrels per day in May, as part of one to gradually add 2.2 million barrels per day to the market. This increase in crude could put even more down pressure on oil prices, also taking into account Kazakhstan that does not stop producing. From the New York Timessome analysts have interpreted this movement as a gesture towards Trump, who seeks to reduce fuel prices, while others see them as a way to prevent members from exceeding their production quotas. A downward trend? This whole situation may be maintained in the short term. On the one hand, tariffs and overproduction of the OPEC+ can make the price continue. On the other hand, the closure of some refineries could keep the prices of derived products, such as gasoline and diesel. Thus, although the price of crude is still low, the imbalances in supply and infrastructure could maintain tensions in the energy market. The coming months will be crucial to determine whether this fall is a temporary anomaly or a prolonged trend. Image | Unspash Xataka | The apparently irresoluble oil dilemma: OPEC+ wants to produce much more without sinking prices

that the closure of the centrals rises the light of the light

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The Government of Spain agreed a stepped blackout of nuclear centrals between 2027 and 2035. However, the debate that seemed settled in 2019 has reopened with many actors involved. Battle The epicenter of the problem It started with the Almaraz Centralsince it is the first to close within two years according to the agreed calendar. However, electricity, government, opposition and population have opened the debate about whether to continue with the closing plan or extend the useful life of nuclear plants. A renegotiation. Electric companies (Iberdrola, Endesa, Naturgy and EDP) are confronted with both each other and with the central government about the closure of nuclear plants. On the one hand, Iberdrola and Endesa are looking for how to obtain more favorable conditions that allow them to keep the nuclear power plants operational without incurring economic losses, According to eldiario.es. In addition, they add that there is an increase in demand for data centers and must ensure the stability of the supply, because otherwise the light could be increased by up to 25%. On the other hand, the rest of the electricity, such as Naturgy and EDP, have shown less interest in prolonging the useful life of nuclear, since they have adjusted down the accounting value of their assets in this sector, how have explained expanding. The main problem is multiprophity, since any extension requires unanimity among the partners of each plant. To unlock the situation, companies explore solutions such as a 2-3-year mini-programs or the exchange of assets, where companies would reorganize the ownership of the centrals so that there are fewer partners in each plant, which would facilitate decision making. While the government … It continues with the same position that the closure must follow the agreed calendar of 2019, but has shown some flexibility. According to expansionthe Ministry of Ecological Transition has indicated that any renegotiation of the closure of Almaraz or other plants is only possible if electricity agrees first between them. The voices in favor. As we report in Xatakathe Congress of Deputies approved a non -law proposition to open the possibility of extending nuclear centrals. The initiative, presented by the Popular Party came forward with the support of Vox and a deputy of UPN, in addition to the abstention of Junts and ERC. Of course, since it is a non -binding figure, its approval does not entail any change in the formalized closing calendar six years ago, but it does reflect the position of the camera. The commitment to renewable. The National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC 2023-2030) has established that in five years 81% of electricity with renewable sources and renewable sources must be generated is close to getting it. In the last two months, according to the data provided by Electric Red of Spain (REE)nuclear energy has represented 20% of the total electricity generation. This percentage has increased due to the fall in solar energy production. This change in the energy panorama reopens the debate on the need for a continuous energy source, especially given the growing energy consumption of data centers driven by artificial intelligencethat require constant and stable supply. On the other hand, another question opens, in terms of the use of energy storage that could be one of the alternatives, but in the country all that surplus of renewable energy It is taking place in the swamps. The future. While the debate on the future of nuclear energy in Spain is still open, investigations have begun to take steps towards nuclear fusion. The Rodas project, which seeks to advance in this emerging technology, is presented as a new window within the energy sector, with the aim of developing a clean and practically inexhaustible energy source, As we have highlighted in Xataka. However, there is still a way to go and much to try before the nuclear fusion becomes A large -scale viable alternative. Image | FROBLES Xataka | Ascó and Almaraz nuclear power plants will close in six years. Its US twins just renewed up to 2060

1,300 flights affected by the closure of the largest airport in Europe

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“A fire in an electrical substation that supplies the airport.” It is the reason, as reported by the heatow airport authorities themselves On its website and in the official accounts of social networks as x. From the airport they recommend not to go to their facilities and get in touch with the airlines if you wanted to take a flight today to find a solution to it. Heidi Alexander, Minister of Transportation, has also asked travelers who do not go to the facilities: “I am receiving updates about the situation in development at Heathrow Airport. I am grateful for emergency services that are responding to the fire, and National Grid for working to restore energy from the airport and households. He urges passengers who do not travel to the airport and contact their airline” The airport is the largest in Europe. The last 2024 closed the year with a traveler record. In total it is estimated that they went through its facilities 83.9 million people. A figure far higher than that registered in 2019, the best year until then with 80.9 million travelers. According to BBCit is estimated that 1,351 flights can be canceled throughout the day. The consequences will be extended inside and outside our continent and has a special impact on our country. New York, Dubai, Doha and Los Angeles are the main journeys at the London airport. Dublin sneaks like the fourth city that has the most transfer with Heatrow and the sixth city and the second European is Madrid. From AENA They have already reported that 54 flights with origin or destination within our country will be affected today. Journeys that are distributed throughout the following cities: Madrid: 29 flights Barcelona: 19 flights Malaga: 2 flights South Tenerife: 2 flights Valencia: 2 flights The fire that affects the airport has had no implications exclusively in its facilities. According to BBC16,300 homes have also run out of electricity and 150 people have had to be evacuated. At the moment, the cuasas of the fire are unknown. All connections affected by the Heatrow Fire. Source: Flightradar24 A logistics challenge Sean Dilley, a journalist specialized in transport of the British media, points out that the fire has created a logistics challenge that will be extended throughout the world. Air traffic is calculated to the millimeter to always keep in mind how many flights are in the air and the capacity on land. Close the largest airport in Europe It forces the network to assume that challenge. He explains that Gatwick (also in London) will absorb the greatest amount of flights that can but that its capacity is almost at the limit. The same goes for Stansted and Luton. At the moment, in The Guardian They report that Stansted has not received requests to accept flights to Heatrow. A spokesman for it has indicated that: “London Stansted is currently operating normally, we have the capacity for a small number of deviations, but so far we have not received any request.” Another option that is being valued, according to Dilley, is to divert flights to Manchester and relocate passengers by train. And to distribute long -distance flights on the network, make them terrric in Schipol (Amsterdam) or Frankfurt that are also among the largest airports on the continent. In The Guardian They also focus on the problem of Fuel supply which can be generated in airports that accept the detour of some of the trips with original destination in Heatow. And to current delays and cancellations, we must add those that can be generated in the next few days until all flights have been made. Although the airport opened normally tomorrow, Saturday, March 22, the delays are expected to accumulate. Photo | Heatow Airport In Xataka | The failure that has demonstrated the fragility of airports around the world: Crowdstrike and a dramatic day in the middle of summer

A declaration of intentions? What the closure of the APK tells about Spotify its sudden restrictive turn

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Spotify was founded in 2006 and it has not been until 2024 that has managed to be profitable. He has had gusts with green -green quarter and others in red, but this year has been the year, in capital and bold. This is a great news for the company, undoubtedly, and a tremendous chance that is right now, in full bonanza, when you have decided to stop that … Countless call Spotify modified APK. And that is right now, in this context, it is a small Leave vu of something we have already lived. Spotify what? It is no secret that looking for the right words on the Internet, any user could reach a modified Spotify application. An fully functional and illegitimate app that, in a nutshell, eliminated one of the great restrictions of the Spotify free plan: choose what song to listen. 27 Spotify tricks – Control your whole music like nobody! As every free service user will know, non -subscribers can only listen to music in random. They cannot choose which song reproduce, but choose a list and let the random mode do their own. In addition, only the songs can jump a few times and, of course, they are forced to listen to advertising. The modified APK eliminated advertising, allowed to choose songs and jump the songs as many times as we would like. Spotify benefits and losses | Image: Xataka The end. And if we talk in the past it is because Spotify, abruptly, without prior notice and from one day to another, has decided to take action on the matter. From a stroke, it has made these modified applications stop working. That has caused the users who used them and look for alternatives, thus creating An excellent culture broth for cybercriminals. Spoiler: Download a modified Spotify application is synonymous with potential problems. Leave vu. Obviating that the use of this application breaches the terms and conditions of the service and the user agreement, it is still striking that this decision has been applied overnight. Spotify is in his entire right, there is plenty of saying, but it is the accumulation of situations and the precedents that attracts attention. Streaming platforms, starting with Netflix and then all the others, decided overnight end the shared accounts. The difference is that Netflix did it when it went through a pothole, while Spotify has decided to stop the modified APKs while on the wave crest. Spotify has 675 million users of which 263 million are paying. Surely the impact of the modified APK is minimal, but its blocking is 1) normal and 2) a possible declaration of intentions. Image: Fábio Alves in UNSPLASH What if Spotify is getting serious? Now that Spotify has managed to be profitable, perhaps he is thinking of putting the points on the ís to all those users who violate their service. Using a modified APK is a clear violation of the terms and conditions of use, so it was evident that this was going to happen sooner or later, but there is something else that is a common practice in the service and through which Spotify has only passed on tiptoe. The shared accounts. The melon of shared family accounts has been opened several times, but it has never finished solving. Spotify Let it clear that the family plan is for up to six family members who live in the same direction, but the reality is that the verification system It is easily drawable. Spotify only verifies the introduced address, but does not seem to follow up like the one that does, for example, Netflix. Spotify shared family accounts have long been in the peephole, but their misuse has been passed. At least for now Spotify can surely know without much problem that your “family” of “six members” is distributed between Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Seville and a colleague who is from Erasmus in Brussels although all, for practical purposes, live in the same direction as the administrator. He simply lets him be, and that will be so until Spotify decide to stop being. And maybe that moment is now a little closer being, in any case, a risky movement. Spotify is alone. Especially since Spotify is a service that depends entirely on subscriptions and advertising. Apple Music, Amazon Music or YouTube Music have behind companies that sell and/or offer other more lucrative products or services than the musical product itself. Spotify, however, does not have that support and play with the number of subscribers is more movie. Image | Pexels Although Netflix has been afraid. Although users put themselves on a war on social networks and ink rivers were written about it, The reality is that Netflix has been great His crusade against shared accounts and the free plan with advertising. 55% of the new highs bet on the cheap plan with ads and the end of shared accounts have made the platform reach 300 million subscribers. Perhaps the end of the modified APK is the beginning of a new stage in Spotify. One in which shared accounts are with relatives, and with no one; one with high definition sound (plan that does not finish arriving) and one in which, finally, streaming music is profitable. Or maybe not, but the background is what they are. Cover image | Cottonbro Studio In Xataka | The great surprise of the Pódcast is not that people are listening to them. Is that he is seeing them

Third -party stores are still insignificant in Android. The Amazon App Store closure is the last test

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Amazon will take goodbye to your Android application store starting next August 20. The company has issued a statement For developers and has detailed on its support website What will happen to the store From this date. The reason is clear and transparent: users were not using the store beyond the Amazon devices themselves. Therefore, they decide to stop supporting Android and turn it into an alternative only for their own products. What will happen to the Amazon store. Amazon App Store will stop working on August 20. As of this date, the company does not guarantee the operation of the applications discharged from it. Although it will disappear on Android, it will continue to be available on Amazon’s own devices, such as Fire TV and Fire Tablet. The goal is to keep the store alive only on the company’s devices. What happens to the COINS? Amazon App Store had its own currency, the Amazon Coins. These are used to make purchases inside the store, but also within the apps unloaded through it. The Amazon Coins balance will be completely reimbursed, so you will not lose the money invested in them. The reason: lack of users. Amazon has alluded to a clear reason: his store was not being used enough (at least on devices outside his ecosystem). “We have decided to discontinue Amazon’s appthore on Android to focus our efforts on the experience of the appthore on our own devices, since it is there where the vast majority of our clients are currently interacting.” There is only a possible rival. Play Store is (and will remain in the short term) the most used store in the world. It is estimated that it has between 2,500 and 3,000 million active users, something logical when pre -installed on all Android telephone. This store covers practically all globable markets, saving some markets such as Chino. Competing against this mastodon is an arduous task, although there are few efforts to achieve it. Huawei, with great support from the Chinese government, is making APP Gallery exceed 600 million active users. There are many more compared to the 100 million estimated for Amazon Store, and that between 10 and 20 million that are estimated at minority stores such as Aurora Store. Not everything is numbers. Although at the level of numbers nobody can cough Play Store, there is much beyond the total number of unique users. Technological giants such as Epic Games have led Android Your application store With a single purpose: avoid Play Store commissions. On the Huawei side, it is not focused on competing globally against Play Store: it wants to be the main app store in China and consolidate the leadership of the company in your native country. Compete against Play Store goes beyond figures, and with The arrival of third -party apps to App Store They have the great opportunity to continue getting with increasing impulse. Image | Xataka In Xataka | This is the first thing I do to verify that an apk is safe

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