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I.A.E.A. - Country Nuclear Power Profile -
Italy Report
( 2002 Edition - It updates the country information, in general, to the
end of 2001)
(This is the fourth edition of the Country Nuclear Power Profiles)
Narrative overview of nuclear power development in Italy
1 - General
information
2 -
Electricity sector
3 -
Nuclear power situation
4 -
Nuclear power industry
5 -
Regulatory framework
4. Nuclear power industry
4.1. Supply of Nuclear Power Plants
Due to the historical development of nuclear technology in Italy, it was
not possible to develop
separate organizations for the roles of architect engineer and nuclear
steam systems supplier. For PUN,
it was foreseen that ENEL would have covered the role of architect
engineering, and ANSALDO
would have been the nuclear supplier. For the other reactors, both
activities were performed mainly by
foreign companies. For example, for Caorso nuclear power plant the
supplier was a joint venture of
ANSALDO and G.E. (AMN/GETS), while the architect engineering services
were provided by Gibbs
& Hill of the U.S.
At present, ANSALDO participates in a joint venture with AECL for
construction of five
CANDU reactors in Cernovoda, Romania.
Sogin is also present in the international market offering mainly
engineering and consultancy
services for refurbishing of power plants, for on site assistance
programmes and for decommissioning
activities. At present, Sogin is participating in PHARE and TACIS
programmes: it is since 1997 leader
in the On Site Assistance project of the Medzamor plant (Armenia); as a
partner of EDF it is operating
for safety improvements of Aktau (Kazakistan) and Beloyarsk (Russia)
fast breeder reactors; other
services have been granted in other eastern countries and in the field
of training.
4.2. Operation of Nuclear Power Plants
Since 1962, ENEL has been the only utility owning and operating nuclear
power reactors.
ENEL has also acted as a maintenance company with several other private
or state-owned companies
(ANSALDO, Carlo Gavazzi, Fochi, Belleli, FIAT, etc.). For instance, half
of the outage services at
Caorso NPP are performed by the plant personnel and other half by
external contractors. For training
nuclear operators, ENEL established, in the 1980’s, a training centre in
Piacenza equipped with a full
scale BWR simulator.
Now Sogin cares about post operation activities of NPPs to be
decommissioned
4.3. Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Service Supply
4.3.1. Uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication
In Italy, there are no facilities for enriching Uranium. Several
installations have the capability to
manufacture fuel elements. However, at the present time all are closed.
4.3.2. Fuel transportation
Radioactive material can be transported only by authorized carriers. The
authority responsible
for issuing freight licences is the Ministry of Industry, after ANPA
(Agenzia Nazionale per la
Protezione dell’Ambiente, see section 5.1) has given its technical
assessment. The rules regulating
transport of radioactive material come from IAEA’s Safety Series No. 6,
and are in accordance with
international regulations enacted by ICAO, ADR, RID and IMO.
4.3.3. Spent fuel disposal and storage
Some irradiated fuel removed from ENEL power plants has been reprocessed
in the United
Kingdom. The remainder is stored at ENEL and at Avogadro (Saluggia- Fiat
Avio )storage.
In the middle of the 90ties, Enel has decided to terminate nuclear fuel
reprocessing, on the basis
of an economical and technical evaluation, and to proceed with interim
dry storage of the remaining
spent fuel of light water reactors. It was in fact recognized that, in
the light of the Italian situation,
reprocessing would not have brought important advantages in term of
final disposal, since VHLW
would have to be disposed anyway together with other reprocessing
generated wastes; moreover, the
waste form would not have implied specific advantages in term of final
disposal, where only
geological barriers could be credited.
For the temporary on site storage of irradiated fuel, among the various
available technologies,
the dry storage, inside dual-purpose metallic containers (“cask”), has
been chosen.
Sogin is actively carrying on a project for an interim storage facility
on the sites of Trino and
Caorso NPPs where residual spent fuel of these plants can be kept safely
for several decades pending
the governmental decision on final disposal.
4.3.4. Waste management and disposal
The sources of radioactive waste in Italy include the power plants
formerly operated by ENEL,
the fuel cycle plants: operated by Fabbricazioni Nucleari S.p.A., ENEA
research laboratories and
experimental facilities, and non-energy applications (e.g., biomedical
and other uses).
It is a governmental commitment the definition of guidelines and of a
regulatory framework for
the management of radioactive wastes: in this view a National Operator
is to be created and appointed
for the management of all existing and future wastes; in the meantime, a
procedure has been initiated
by the government in order to select the site for the final repository
for the second category wastes (see
below): the repository is at present scheduled to be operating early in
2009. A specific task force of
ENEA is now working on the siting of the repository. Waiting for the
constitution of the national
operator, Sogin and ENEA have provided strategies for the temporary
storage on their sites of the
produced wastes; NUCLECO (an ENI and ENEA joint company, established in
1981) has the
responsibility for non-energy applications produced wastes. ANPA is
responsible for licensing
aspects.
Since 1996 ENEA is undertaking a Task Force for the investigation of the
appropriate strategies and
technologies to be adopted for the radioactive waste disposal. An
Engineered Near Surface LLW
Disposal Facility is considered by ENEA and they are currently involved
in site selection criteria
definition in order to start with a screening in the Italian territory.
The general safety objectives and criteria of a pre-conceptual design of
the LLW repository, prepared
by the ENEA Task Force, is currently under evaluation by ANPA.
On the institutional side, an Expert Group was set up on January 2000 by
the relevant Ministries and
Regional Authorities with the main objective to identify and propose a
procedure for the site selection
with the required level of consensus from the public and local
authorities. The Group presented
preliminary conclusions on September 2001. In July 2002 the Government
issued a project of law that
foresses the procedures for the establishment of the body that will care
the siting, the construction and
the operation of the repository. The law is not approved yet.
The criteria applicable to the classification, treatment and disposal of
radioactive waste are set
forth in ENEA/DISP’s Technical Guide No. 26, issued in May 1988 and
updated in 1997. These rules
allow above ground disposal of treated low-level waste (Categories I and
11) and prescribe suitable
final disposal solutions (such as deep disposal) for high-level waste (Category
III).
As for categories I and II, solid low-level waste is to be
super-compacted and cemented. Liquid
low-level waste is to be cemented in containers suitable for above
ground storage.
At the present time, high-level and most low-level waste is stored at
production sites (Sogin
power plants and ENEA facilities). The quantities of energy related
waste currently stored in Italy are
the follows:
- about 5,300 cubic meters solid and 40 cubic meters liquid low level
waste (Categories I and II);
- cubic meters solid high-level waste (Category III). This figure
includes alpha-emitting waste, 120
cubic meters liquid waste. About 290 tHM of spent fuel have to be added.
Vitrification and cementation treatments are under consideration for
liquid high-level waste, and
cementation for solid high-level waste in category III containers for
deep storage.
4.4. Research and Development Activities
Nuclear research is conducted by several agencies, institutions and
universities. Every three
years two governmental bodies (Consiglio Nazionale della Scienza e della
Tecnologia and CIPE) issue
the “Triennial Research Plan” in order to co-ordinate the whole research
sector. The leading agency
for applied nuclear research is ENEA with its Energy Research Centre (CRE)
at Casaccia, near Rome.
To a lesser extent, research activities are also performed by ENEL.
Theoretical research in the nuclear
field is performed mainly under the aegis of CNR (Consiglio Nazionale
delle Ricerche = Italian National Research Council) and INFN
(Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare = Italian National Institute for
Nuclear Physics) in its four main laboratories - Laboratori Nazionali di
Frascati,
Laboratori Nazionali di Legnano, Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and the
new Laboratori Nazionali del
Gran Sasso.
In nuclear engineering, the universities with degree programmes are the
Università di Roma
(power plant engineering), the Università di Pisa (safety assessments),
and the Politecnico di Milano
(plant engineering and probabilistic safety studies).
Some research activities, experiments and studies, mainly in connection
with the above
universities and agencies, are still performed at the facilities
equipped with research reactors.
4.5. International Co-operation in the Field of Nuclear Power
Development and Implementation
Italy participates in several international co-operative projects
developed under the aegis of the
European Community, NEA/OECD and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In this setting two
important research centres must be pointed out: the Joint Research
Centre of Ispra and the
International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, a branch of
IAEA. ANPA is participating in the
PHARE and TACIS programmes of assistance to Central Europe and CIS
countries. Sogin is also
deeply involved in these programmes.
In the area of nuclear safety and environmental protection, bilateral
agreements have been
signed with NRC (USA), NII (UK), CSN (Spain), N.N.S.A.(China), and
D.S.I.N (France).
Some noteworthy activities in progress are: nuclear fuel research
conducted with the Halden
reactor; participation in the international EPRI-DOE programme on new
generation reactors; and, in
nuclear fusion field, participation in the Joint European Torus project.
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