The go-ahead has arrived, with the clearance from the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of the Environment, to Sogin for the publication of the National Charter of potentially suitable areas (Cnapi), the preliminary project and related documents for the construction of the deposit national radioactive waste which will make it possible to definitively conserve Italian radioactive waste of low and medium activity.
Sogin is the state company responsible for the dismantling of Italian nuclear plants and for the management and safety of radioactive waste.
There are 67 potentially suitable places (they are not all equivalent but have different degrees of priority depending on the characteristics) to host the national repository of radioactive waste identified in seven regions: Piedmont, Tuscany, Lazio, Puglia, Basilicata, Sardinia and Sicily.
The municipalities involved in the seven regions are also indicated in the general table attached to the CNAPI.
With the go-ahead to the Charter, "the phase of consultation of the documents starts for the duration of two months, at the end of which the national seminar will be held over the next four months".
This will be "the start of the real public debate - explains the Ministry of the Environment - which will see the participation of local authorities, trade associations, trade unions, universities and research bodies, during which all aspects will be examined, including the possible economic and territorial development benefits associated with the construction of the works ".
The national depot and the technology park will be built in an area of approximately 150 hectares, of which 110 are dedicated to the depot and 40 to the park, as explained by the Ministry of the Environment.
The deposit will have a "matryoshka structure";
inside there will be "90 constructions in reinforced concrete, called cells", in which "large containers in special concrete, the modules, will be placed, which in turn will enclose the metal containers containing the radioactive waste already conditioned".
In total, "about 78 thousand cubic meters of low and medium activity waste" will be hosted.
The total investment is approximately 900 million euros and it is estimated that it will generate over 4,000 jobs per year for 4 years of construction, direct (2,000 internal and external), indirect (1,200) and induced (1,000).
