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
4. Government strategy change
and the role of SOGIN
4.1 The creation of
SOGIN
Until recently the activities in the
field of waste management and decommissioning have been carried out by
the owners and licensee of the nuclear installations (ENEL for power
plants and mainly ENEA for other facilities), without co-ordination in
absence of a common strategy.
In the context of the privatisation and liberalisation of the electric
energy market, and according to the Legislative Decree March 16 1999
n. 79, all ENEL’s liabilities and assets (including manpower and
resources) related to nuclear power have been assigned to a newly
established company, named SO.G.I.N. (Società Gestione Impianti
Nucleari, hereafter SOGIN). SOGIN has been operational since November
1st 1999; its shares have been transferred on November 3rd, 2000 to
the Ministry of Economy. However SOGIN programs shall comply with
technical directives issued by MAP.
The mission of SOGIN covers:
- the decommissioning of the NPP’s in
Italy;
- the disposal of the low and
intermediate radioactive wastes resulting from the past operation
and from the dismantling activities;
- the temporary storage of the high
level wastes (resulting from the reprocessing of the spent fuel) and
of the no reprocessed spent fuel.
In accordance with a long term strategy
of coordination of decommissioning programs, licenses of the ENEA and
FN facilities have been transferred to SOGIN in 2003, while the
property and personnel transfer will be completed shortly.
4.2 The Government
change of strategy
Several motivations have been at the
basis of the Ministry of Industry change of strategy made public with
a document issued on December 1999, covering all aspects of the
closure of the past nuclear activities in Italy.
The Ministry’s statement outlines three main goals:
- treatment and conditioning, within a
10 year period, of all liquid and solid radwaste currently in
on-site storage, mostly produced during plant operations;
- site selection and construction of a
national repository for low and intermediate level wastes, also
within 10 years; the same site would be used for temporary storage
of high level long lived wastes, particularly spent fuel and wastes
resulting from reprocessing;
- decommissioning of the nuclear
plants, proceeding directly to the dismantling stage in order to
reach release of the site with no radiological constraints in about
20 years (“prompt decommissioning” or DECON strategy).
- A similar target has been indicated
for other facilities in 15 years
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