The countdown has begun but there is already the first meeting of the "TriNo" Committee next Tuesday Trino Vercellese. For the national nuclear waste repository with an estimated cost of 900 million euros, the battle against localization has reopened. Where to build it? The Municipality of Trino Vercellese, home to an old power plant, has applied to host it. The citizens who were against it immediately organized themselves. The mobilization starts next Tuesday.
Self-nominations are, however, foreseen by the Ministry of the Environment which on 13 December published the National Map of the 51 suitable areas (CNAI) to accommodate waste. The document has been more or less known since March, including the possibility of self-nominations.
“Within 30 days the territories not present in the proposal can advance their candidacy” it is written. And the Municipality of Trino, despite not being on the list of 51, stepped forward. Why? “Because politics have had the power to decide on the deposit for 30 years but have never done so because they were terrified of it loss of consensus. And the thing is bipartisan, as no territory has ever been found willing to dialogue. I am, because I have the duty to think about the safety and health of citizens" replied the mayor Daniele Bread.
A zero risk deposit
But the entire Vercelli area has been excluded from the map prepared by Sogin, the Committee replies. So why propose if the area is off the list? To derive economic and employment benefits and take the side of change. It is clear that health risks must be assessed upstream and therefore should not exist. That's it data management; must be as controlled as possible and that no one should have any doubts about the quality of the project. A zero risk site.
Low and medium level radioactive waste will be stored once and for all at the site. For those with high radioactivity, a discussion is open in Europe for a repository for the benefit of all countries.
The Regions that oppose it
Sogin developed the Charter on the basis of observations arising from a public consultation and a national seminar. The areas identified all have the right requirements to accommodate even the expected Technology park. Since the countdown until January, Sicily, Sardinia, Basilicata have been called out, as well as the Piedmont Region itself which criticized the mayor of Trino.
Let's say it all clearly: the time to decide has come. We have before us one of Italy's infinite unfinished projects that we complain about. We have dragged it until today as we face new generation nuclear power.
In their short activity the four plants have produced waste which is stored in several places. The first, in Latina in the 60s with an English reactor, was envied by half the world. Italy, home of Enrico Fermi and of the major nuclear physicists, he was ahead of the Americans and English who only manufactured reactors. Now the residues will increase with the reclamation of the old plants and again without deciding what to do with it? Do we leave them as an inheritance to children and grandchildren?
“The deposit is needed, it is urgent - ha ditto also Stephen Ciafani, president of Legambiente – too much time has already been wasted, and it must be done to accommodate low and medium level waste. For those with high activity, we must work at community level, as required by the EU directive, to identify a suitable geological deposit that is as safe as possible".
In Europe we will discuss as Legambiente says, but in our house we decide once and for all. And before they pile up in temporary warehouses other waste, causing risks of all kinds to increase. Of environmental issues in the hands of the Minister Piquet Fratin, all open, we already have a good amount of them.
