| Decommissioning in Italy (The Decommissioning and Dismantling of Nuclear Facilities in OECD/NEA Member Countries - Italian National fact sheet by ANPA)
1 - Present Status of the Italian nuclear installations
2 - Legal and Regulatory Framework 3 - The initial strategy 4 - Government strategy change and the role of SOGIN 5 - Current programs and main issues 6 - The management of radioactive wastes and spent fuel 7 - The National repository 8 - Funding
1. Present Status of the Italian nuclear installations
All the Italian NPP’s are, at present, definitely shut down and, at different stages, in decommissioning. The Garigliano 150 MWe BWR, was operated by ENEL from 1963 to 1978. All spent fuel has been removed from the plant and several activities have been performed such as a light decontamination and drainage of the vessel, primary circuit and spent fuel pit; dry low level operational wastes compaction, cementation of liquid and semiliquid (sludge) radioactive wastes, refurbishing of the reactor sphere. All the activities have been performed in anticipation to the approval of the Global Decommissioning Plan. The 153 MWe GCR of Latina was operated by ENEL since 1962 until 1987. All spent fuel has been removed from the plant; the primary circuit has been filled with dry air, and blowers and portions of the primary circuit outside the reactor building are being dismantled in anticipation to the approval of the Global Decommissioning Plan. The Trino 260 MWe PWR was operated by ENEL from 1965 to 1987. A limited quantity of spent fuel is still present in the spent fuel pool; no major decommissioning activities have been performed yet, since Authority approval of the Global Decommissioning Plan is still underway. The Caorso 860 MWe BWR was operated by ENEL only from 1981 to 1986. All spent fuel is still present in the spent fuel pool; no major decommissioning activities have been performed yet, since Authority approval of the Global Decommissioning Plan is still underway. As far as the fuel cycle facilities are concerned, all of them have been definitely stopped and their nuclear materials and/or radioactive wastes are managed, while decontamination and dismantling operations are being planned and defined. IFEC, a pilot fuel fabrication facility, located at Saluggia, was operated by ENEA from the early sixties till the late eighties to fabricate MTR fuel reloads for the Italian research reactors, as well as the fuel bundles for the HWR CIRENE. Starting from 1990, all the equipment have been decontaminated and removed, all the operating halls have been decontaminated and released for conventional purposes. This is the only facility completely dismantled. FN (Fabbricazioni Nucleari), an industrial scale plant for LWR fuel fabrication located at Bosco Marengo, was operated by FN from 1973 to 1995. Most of the nuclear material has been transferred to other sites and the operational dry radioactive wastes have been supercompacted. A remaining quantity of fresh fuel scraps will be shortly removed from the site, while the approval of the decommissioning plan by the Authority is pending. EUREX pilot reprocessing facility, located at Saluggia, was operated by ENEA from 1970 to 1974 (MTR fuels) and from 1980 to 1983 (Candu fuels). Its main present task is to treat and condition liquid wastes produced in the reprocessing of MTR and CANDU fuel (some 120 m3 ILW and some 100 m3 LLW) and to transfer into dry storage a limited quantity of spent fuel currently in the pool. ITREC pilot reprocessing facility, located in the southern part of Italy (Trisaia), was operated by ENEA in the ‘70 (uranium-thorium cycle fuels from the US Elk River reactor). After performing the cementation of the HLW produced by reprocessing a limited number of U-Th fuel, the present task is to solidify the U-Th solution, to manage the historical wastes and to transfer into dry storage the fuel currently in the pool. PLUTONIUM pilot MOX fuel fabrication facility, located at Casaccia Center, was operated by ENEA from 1968 to 1974 (process development) and from 1977 to early eighties (MOX fuel fabrication experimental campaigns). After treatment of many radioactive waste streams (mostly high plutonium bearing liquids), the dismantling of glove boxes will be carried out with a special remotely handled installation being completed. OPEC 1 has been a post-irradiation examination facility, located in the Casaccia Center, operated by ENEA from 1962 to 1990, where activities have been carried out on metal uranium and uranium oxide in a series of Hot Cells. From 1992 to 1998 activities on spent fuel scraps ecapsulation and hot cell decontamination have been carried out. The main decommissioning issue is the repackaging and the disposal of spent fuel scraps. source: A.N.P.A. | 
The only national site for collection of nuclear wastes in Italy, 
italiano
english
francais
japanese
espanol
deutsch
ENGLISH REPORT
richiedi