Palomares bombshell

THE Spanish government intends to buy 40 hectares of plutonium-contaminated land in Palomares.

Since 2010 the State has paid rent to the owners of land which was affected by US hydrogen bombs that fell to earth there in 1966.

Spain’s Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (Ciemat) now occupies the fenced-off area, originally signing a three-year contract in 2010 which it has continued to extend since then.

Without any warning the Official Bulletin of the central government’s Delegation to Andalucia gave owners until the end of last week to appeal against the “urgent occupation of properties that require special radiological monitoring in Vera and Cuevas del Almanzora.”

Villaricos SL, which owns seven properties on land currently occupied by Ciemat, immediately announced that it was challenging the compulsory purchase order.

“We are going to oppose it, of course we are,” the company’s lawyer told the Spanish media.

“They have had 11 years to clean up the radioactive waste but now realise that it is cheaper to expropriate the land than pay a fee to occupy the land.”

The decision was based on economic motives, not the public interest, he declared.

The lawyer revealed that 43 owners in Cuevas and Vera also intend to appeal against the compulsory purchase orders.