Directorate-General for Energy may grant or revoke licences related to the generation of nuclear power.
The Minister of Economy, María Luisa Hayem, presented to the Legislative Assembly a draft Nuclear Energy Law that will empower theDirectorate-General for Energy, Hydrocarbons and Mines(DGEHM) to grant, suspend or revoke licences related to the design, construction or operation of nuclear or radioactive installations.
The government’s bet isto have a nuclear reactor in seven yearsBy 2030, training 400 people earlier.
The project delivered by the Minister proposes the creation of theNuclear Energy Regulation Directorateand theNuclear Energy Control and Monitoring Directoratethat they would be under the Directorate-General for Energy.
If the project is approved as presented, the Energy Directorate will be the one that will license it, apply the sanctions and have a National Registry of Radiation Sources in El Salvador.
Requests for nuclear activities will be submitted to theRegulatory Directorate, which shall open a period of not more than 15 working days for any interested party to submit an oposition to the authorisation, so that a hearing is installed within a maximum of 10 working days and resolves in another 10-day period.
The law states that, in the event of nuclear incidents and/or accidents, thenuclear facilities operatorswill be the “responsible” for compensating victims and remedying environmental damage, and also states that the State must take risk protection measures.
The project envisages the creation of a National Programme for the Inspection and Control of Authorized Activities, Facilities and Practices, emergency preparedness and response plans to be available to operators of nuclear facilities, a National Nuclear Emergency Plan; in addition to a National Policy and Strategy for Radioactive and Fueled Nuclear Energy Waste.
The sanctions that may be imposed by theDirectorate-General for EnergyBy infringements such as refusing an inspection or operating without a license – ranging from $10,000 to 10 per cent of the final cost of the nuclear installation and the revocation of the license.
The project establishes acivil liabilityminimum of $150 million beforenuclear damage to people, goods and the environmentAlthough compensation rights, according to the bill submitted, would be extinguished in 10 years.
In July 2024 the Legislative Assemblygave life to the Agency for the Implementation of the Nuclear Energy Program in El Salvador (OIPEN)and repealed the Organic Law of the Salvadoran Nuclear Energy Commission of 1961 which participated in the University of El Salvador (UES) in that commission together with the Executive Commission of Hidroelectric River Lempa (CEL) and the Ministry of Economy. This repealed regulation declared “restricted areas” to certain places where there was a risk to public health and safety.
OPEIN, which began its validity on 16 July,signed in Octobera cooperation agreement with the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) of Argentina that would allow scientific missions and training to El Salvador. CEL projects that 26 per cent of the energy generated in El Salvador will be nuclear by 2050.
31 January 2024,El Salvador ratified the Vienna Convention on Civil Liability for Nuclear Damageapproved by the Executive on 19 January, whose depository entity is the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA in Spanish or IAEA). This Convention seeks to ensure compensation for even transboundary harm caused by nuclear incidents in nuclear facilities.
Earlier, El Salvador also ratified the Agreement on the Privileges and Immunities of the IAEA, an instrument that was handed over to the IAEA together with the ratified Vienna Convention and a Nuclear Safety Convention to the Director General of the IAEA, the Argentine Rafael Mariano Grossi, which wasinformedby Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele via X.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo