• Guarantee compliance with the environmental legislation in force and other voluntarily accepted requirements, maintaining an attitude of ongoing adherence.

• Operate the installations with respect for the environment, identifying, preventing, controlling and minimising, as far as possible, the environmental impact of its activities.

• Continually making improvements to all processes which could have environmental repercussions.

• Controlling and reducing, as far as reasonably possible, leakages, and conventional and nuclear waste.

• Motivating and training staff in respect to the environment, stimulating development of an environmental culture and communicating the Environmental Policy within and external to the Organisation.

• Introducing and maintaining updated a Standard Environmental Management System.

Almaraz-Trillo Nuclear Plants continued to develop signifi cant activities in relation to environmental issues during 2015, which are incorporated in the Environmental Management Programme, the most signifi cant of which are detailed below:

It should be noted in relation to high level waste constituted by the spent fuel extracted from the reactor, Almaraz NPP has initiated the design and administrative procedures to provide an Individual Temporary Storage (ITS) unit, on its own land within the facility. Other Spanish nuclear power plants, including Trillo NPP are already equipped with a working ITS. Currently the project is in the MAGRAMA impact assessment.

Engineering and assembly work has been implemented to replace fl uorinated gases to protect the ozone layer. Since this programme began, about 130 items of equipment have been replaced. Improvements have been made in the treatment of Legionella in cooling towers, consisting of the implementation of a new biocide-based system in the generation of chlorine dioxide for the Trillo NPP tower systems, and the installation of supplementary biocide dosers for the Almaraz NPP systems.

New material has also been provided for storage and management of hazardous waste at Almaraz NPP, and improvements have been made in the E.D.A.R. installations.

Starting in 2013 and until the present day, various activities have been carried out with the aim of reducing paper consumption throughout the organisation. In 2015 milestones were established aimed at the suppression of paper controlled distribution, replacing it with electronic distribution, and this is being consolidated throughout 2016.

In September 2012, the annual audit of the Environmental Management System (ISO 14001) was carried out by the Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certifi cation (Asociación Española de Normalización y Certifi cación - AENOR), after the Certifi cate had been in force for ten years, and was found to be compliant.

The auditors inspected the Almaraz and Trillo plants and the activities at the Power Plant Offi ces. Previously, in April, an internal System audit was implemented, which forms an obligatory part of the verifi cation process.

There were several inspections by the Nuclear Safety Council on subjects related to the environment at both plants.

Almaraz and Trillo plants have historically performed several environmental monitoring programmes, with the aim of verifying the absence of signifi cant environmental impacts as a consequence of their activities, whether of a radiological or conventional type.

Basically, two environmental studies are carried out in the surroundings of Almaraz NPP, which includes the Arrocampo and Torrejón reservoirs: an ecological study of the aquatic ecosystem and a thermal study of the reservoirs.

These monitoring studies are far-reaching because the Arrocampo reservoir can also be considered to be another Plant system as it was built exclusively for the industrial cooling of Almaraz NPP, and therefore it is used for fi nal heat dissipation requiring the most accurate knowledge possible about the characteristics relating to its capability to fulfi l the cooling function in both the short and the long-term. This requires intensive monitoring and surveillance of both physical and chemical parameters, especially temperature, as well as biological factors.

The environmental study of the aquatic ecosystems carried out in the vicinity of the Trillo plant consists currently of monitoring the river Tajo, where the thermal surplus discharge is made after cooling in the towers, and the general phisico-chemical condition of the Plant, and the Entrepeñas reservoir, located downstream in the proximity of the Plant.

This study includes evaluating the water quality from the physico-chemical viewpoint, and its content of metals and other undesirable substances, as well as the characteristics of other elements of the aquatic ecosystem such as sediments, benthic algae, phyto and zoo plankton and ichthyofauna.

The Almaraz and Trillo Plants exercise continuous radioactive effl uent emissions. Nonetheless, with the objective of verifying experimentally the impact radioactive elements might have on the environment, the plants have implemented an Environmental Radiological Monitoring Programme (ERMP) through direct measurement of radiation levels in the surroundings near to the installations, and of the content of radioactive substances from a series of types of environmental samples which are collected from a set of sampling points.

Comprehensive monitoring is carried out on all abiotic elements and living organisms represented in the ecosystems associated with all the natural resources of the surroundings of the plants (air, land and water).

Over a thousand samples are taken at each of the plants and between 1,500 and 2,000 different types of analyses are carried out (gamma spectrometric, beta activity, environmental doses, strontium, tritium and radioiodine), clearly demonstrating the magnitude of the surveillance implemented.

The usefulness of the results obtained from the analysis are assured through parallel implementation of a quality control programme by another, independent laboratory, and by the implementation of a programme of independent monitoring (PVRAIN) directly by the Nuclear Safety Council.

Also, in the case of the Almaraz Plant, a collaboration agreement is maintained with CEDEX to enable this offi cial body, reporting to the Ministry of Development, to carry out independent surveillance of the aquatic resources in the proximity of the Plant. Extremadura Council also carries out independent radiological monitoring, with the help of the University of Extremadura. The results obtained during 2015 at both plants indicate that the radiological state of the ecosystems of their surroundings have experienced no signifi cant variations during the year, with natural background values remaining unchanged, confi rming the absence of environmental effects due to the leakage of radioactive elements, rendering radiologically insignifi cant any leakages from both plants.

The Almaraz and Trillo plants have meteorological stations which are used continuously to measure and record the most signifi cant parameters such as temperature, precipitation, wind direction and speed, humidity and solar radiation. The meteorological information is of particular relevance for various applications related to the environment, providing an excellent description of the climate at the site, after thirty years of monitoring.

The stations provide the required redundancy to ensure continuous availability of meteorological information.