Washington, May 12 (EFE).- The United States and Spain plan to resume negotiations “soon” to reach a definitive agreement on the cleanup of soil contaminated with plutonium in the Spanish town of Palomares (Almería), John Kirby detailed this Friday. , a White House spokesman.
According to that spokesperson, the issue of Palomares will be part of the talks between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, who will meet starting at 2:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. GMT) in the Office White House Oval.
“We anticipate that negotiations on an agreement will restart soon and we are looking forward to it. We are looking forward to working with our Spanish partners to reach an agreement that is related to greater cleanup efforts at that location,” Kirby said when asked by EFE at a press conference.
The spokesman acknowledged the “importance” of this issue for Spain and stated that Biden “of course” is willing to talk about it with Sánchez.
Specifically, Biden will transfer to Sánchez the willingness of the United States to reach a definitive agreement on how exactly the cleaning work will be carried out.
In 2015, under the Administration of then US President Barack Obama (2008-2017), Washington and Madrid agreed to negotiate a definitive agreement to clean up Palomares and move the contaminated soil to a safe area in the desert near Las Vegas, in the nevada state.
The agreement reached at that time by the US and Spain had no legal link and has not yet led to a final agreement.
However, the negotiations have intensified in recent months and this week, at a press conference in Washington, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, affirmed that the political will exists to resolve that issue.
Among other things, some technical issues remain to be resolved to see how to transfer this large amount of land to the United States, Albares explained in his appearance with Blinken.
The meeting between Sánchez and Biden this Friday has generated the expectation that progress may be made on this matter.
The Palomares accident occurred on January 17, 1966, when two United States Air Force aircraft collided, causing the detachment and fall of four thermonuclear bombs.
None of the bombs exploded, but the detonators of two of the bombs were activated and nuclear material, especially in the form of oxides of plutonium, uranium and americium, was disseminated in the area.
In total, it is about 50,000 cubic meters of contaminated land and that make the radioactive stigma last in Cuevas de Almanzora, the municipality of Almería to which Palomares y Villaricos belongs, more than half a century later.
