Italy needs to ensure long-term management of nuclear waste, but bureaucracy has a hand in it. We will have to wait until 2030 to see the realization of the nuclear waste storage both of industrial and medical origin or coming from research activities. This is the synthesis of the latest parliamentary debate on the Radioactive Waste Deposit (DNPT). An emblematic case of rebounds between politics, bureaucracy and regional competences, with the citizens half. There question which has been dragging on for decades, has returned to the fore in the Environment Commission in the Chamber of Deputies. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, Claudius Barbaro he explained the state of the art of a complex operation yes, but late with respect to energy and national security objectives. The site for storing the waste does not exist and the prospects of finding it in the coming years are shrouded in many clouds. To achieve it is expected an investment of around 900 million euros and thousands of jobs. To raise the case again, a parliamentary question from the Pd deputy Clare Braga. The parliamentarian asked for an account of the former minister's commitment Roberto Cingolani about the location of the deposit at the end of 2023.
Nuclear: waste is increasing in temporary sites
The project that must lead to the DNPT is a central piece of the «National Program for the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.' A 2019 decree defined all the steps to be taken but, evidently, the process does not go as everyone expected. Meanwhile, waste is growing and so is the concern of the citizens of the affected areas. “Compared to the previous year, it is increased the volume of radioactive wasteprisoners in Italy. The total is 31.812,5 cubic meters :+ 60,9 cubic meters,” says Chiara Braga. Their management is safe but at the same time too fragmented with sites scattered throughout the country. So short-range dangers. Furthermore, the final dismantling of the old plants is increasingly linked to the creation of the single repository. Local committees and environmental movements do not let their guard down, since the final choice and subsequent construction of the structure would constitute a historic turning point for Italy. Then we ask ourselves: where and when will it be built? For Undersecretary Barbaro everything has moved on over the years. The localization procedure involving the construction of a Technology Park started a long time ago with the aim of cleaning up the temporary deposits “. "Although they comply with the safety requirements established by their authorization to operate - he explained to the Commission - temporary deposits cannot be considered the final disposal of radioactive waste". But the previous governments had already spoken out on this
Nuclear waste storage: many factors affect the choice of site
The choice revolves around the National Charter of Suitable Areas (CNAI) examined with the Society that takes care of the end of life of power plants (SOGIN) and the National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ISIN). It was updated in June 2022 and the ISIN sent the technical opinion to the Ministry of the Environment in November. The Charter needs to be adapted to obtain the final opinion probably by 2023. In other words, the site will not be identified within this year for the waste (as Cingolani predicted) but only there map of potentially suitable sites. At that point the territories, the Regions, local politics and the committees will enter the field again. There may be administrative appeals against, but also self-nominations from Municipalities, and then the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Times upon times. If everything went the right way, it would take another two, three years to have – at least – the documents in order. Yes, "assuming the positive outcome of all the procedural phases, which are particularly complex and dependent on a set of factors and net of any appeals, the issue of the single authorization provision of the DNPT could take place in 2026 and its commissioning in 2030", says Senator Barbaro. Another seven years, therefore, not easy for the whole story, to eliminate a very high environmental risk and resume, in some way, a more calm discussion on whether or not to think of nuclear power as a future energy source.
