Spain Program
In 1966, two U.S. Air Force planes collided during a midair refueling near the coast of Palomares, Spain with the release of four (4) unarmed nuclear weapons. Two (2) weapons landed intact, and two (2) weapons burned and dispersed plutonium across steep and rugged agricultural areas. The U.S. Department of Defense remediated the site within weeks of the accident. The contaminated soil was placed in barrels and shipped to the DOE Savannah River Site where it was initially buried. A description of how solid radioactive waste was stored at the Savannah River Site is available at: http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/DP-1366.pdf.
Since 1966, CIEMAT has provided complete annual physical examinations and measurement of internally-deposited plutonium through a medical surveillance program for approximately 150 residents that lived in Palomares at the time of the incident.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident, a formal cooperative research program was initiated on February 25th, 1966, between the U.S. Atomic Energy Agency, signed by John A. Hall, Assistant General Manager for International Activities, and the President of Spain’s Junta de Energía Nuclear (JEN), José Maria Otero Navascues, called the Hall-Otero Agreement of 1966. The major goals of the Agreement are to: (1) evaluate the associated radiological impact on the community and its livelihood; (2) update radiological inventories for further land recovery; and (3) improve knowledge on the environmental behavior of transuranic elements in an arid rural environment. The Agreement acknowledges that CIEMAT is the “principal investigator,” and DOE is the “secondary investigator” providing technical assistance and partial funding of research activities. The project is also known as Project Indalo. In 1997, DOE and Spain’s Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Technológicas (CIEMAT) signed a new agreement to continue the work begun under Hall-Otero.
Under the terms of the Hall-Otero Agreement, unpublished reports cannot be released to the public without the concurrence of the two agencies. However, DOE has relinquished this role to CIEMAT and public requests for unpublished reports and other program documents are at the discretion of CIEMAT. More information about the CIEMAT Palomares program is available at https://www.ciemat.es/portal.do?IDM=112&NM=2
In 2005, CIEMAT informed DOE that they would begin the work necessary to release the land for use and that it was necessary to conduct a three-dimensional radiation survey of Palomares' residual contaminated zones and to prepare a final radiological management plan for these zones. In 2007, the two parties formally agreed to share the cost of the three-dimensional radiation survey for completion by the end of 2008. The cost-sharing arrangement required DOE to forgo future cost sharing and instead provide a one-time lump sum payment to offset the full cost of the survey.
The survey was completed in 2009 and received a positive “International Peer Review” sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). CIEMAT plans for the final Palomares rehabilitation were developed following a series of bilateral technical exchanges from 2011-2015. The technical aspects of the CIEMAT plan are available at: https://www-pub.iaea.org/iaeameetings/IEM4/30JAN/sancho.pdf.