ROTONDELLA (MATERA) - Maxi-operation for the removal of the monolith in reinforced concrete containing radioactive waste at the Itrec della Sogin plant in Rotondella (Matera). The operations ended today with the definitive extraction of the vertical structure of 130 tons of mass and a volume of 54 cubic meters. All-Italian engineering.
The extraction took place in a pit 6.5 meters deep. There are no other cases in the world. This last phase will then allow the site to be reclaimed.
Built in the late 1960s, the monolith is a vertical structure of prismatic shape with a mass of around 130 tons and a volume of 54 cubic meters. It is located 6.5 meters deep from the ground level and inside, divided into four square section wells, there are drums with medium-radioactivity waste, incorporated in cement mortar, deriving from the operation of the plant. "The most delicate and difficult phase - explained the person in charge of decommissioning plants, engineer Vincenzo Stigliano, from Basilicata, who turned 48 years old yesterday - was that of separation in the four wells".
The 64 high-activity uranium bars on the Rotondella site are safely stored in the pool, while in the extracted wells of which the phase is completed today there are some elements with medium radioactivity. The four wells removed were safely transferred to a site depot for temporary storage and then retracted at a later stage.
The unearthing was carried out in the presence of the press positioned on a platform at a distance of about fifty meters from the place of extraction. A crane then extracted the last well positioned vertically and then turned it horizontally on a structure to allow it to be transported. "An all-Italian technique - said Stigliano - which is a model for the whole world".
The activity that led to today's final phase lasted 12 years from design to implementation. The lifting and extraction of individual wells is the last phase of the work that will allow the reclamation and release of the area of the pit 7.1. "All the activities that Sogin carries out - it has been emphasized - are authorized and are supervised by local and national Authorities and Bodies, in charge of supervising and supervising, each for its own competence, the work of dismantling and securing the radioactive waste present in the plants ".