Spain town bids for atomic waste dump amid protest

A small Spanish town voted on Tuesday to build a new dump for all the country's high-level nuclear waste in the face of stiff opposition from the regional government and street protesters.                                            
 

Spain's parliament first voted in 2004 to build a centralised site for storing spent nuclear fuel, but the project is not popular and the central government did not call for bids to house the dump until last month.                                            
 

The council of Asco in the northeastern Catalonia region voted by seven votes to two to bid for the site, which the central government estimates will cost €700 million ($986.3 million) to build and create 300 jobs for five years.                                           

"We have the opportunity to build an Asco...which will spur controversy but doubtless bring important revenues to the local economy," mayor Rafael Vidal said in comments broadcast on television channel CNN+.                                           
 

Protesters opposed to the ATC, as the waste dump is known in Spanish, packed the streets of Asco on Sunday and Monday.                                           
 

Jose Montilla, the president of the Catalan regional government, said on Monday he was against building a dump in Catalonia, which is home to three of Spain's eight nuclear power stations as well as many wind farms and hydroelectric plants.                                           

"Catalan power stations produce 40% of all of Spain's power. We've done our bit," he said.