Trino Vercellese has withdrawn its candidacy to host the nuclear repository

Trino Vercellese was the only municipality to apply to host the radioactive waste repository.Following the protests, he withdrew.

• The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (Mase) has given Italian municipalities the opportunity to apply to host the National Radioactive Waste Repository.
• The only one to have nominated was Trino Vercellese, a municipality in the province of Vercelli.
• Following the protests, the municipality revoked his candidacy.

It was January 12, 2024 when the municipal council of Trino Vercellese, a town of 6,722 inhabitants in the province of Vercelli, nominated itself to host the national radioactive waste repository.Now, that self-nomination has been revoked:the mayor Daniele Pane he published the notice on the municipal administration's notice board, a few hours after a meeting with the "Tri.No" committee.

In short, Mayor Pane has retraced his steps. But for what reason? It seems that two months of protests by environmentalist associations had a decisive role, as well as by several mayors who had announced their appeal to the TAR against Trino's candidacy, as well as by exponents of Pane's own party, namely Fratelli d 'Italy.

Trino, the only self-candidate municipality to host the single repository for radioactive waste

The Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (Mase), in agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, approved, in December 2023, the National map of areas suitable for hosting the National Radioactive Waste Repository.The sites, 51 in total, were selected on the basis of the technical and socio-environmental characteristics contained in the technical guide prepared by Isin (National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection).Of these, one must be chosen to host the Depot even if, for the moment, none of the municipalities identified among the suitable areas have accepted the construction of the site.

At the same time, the Mase gave the municipalities the opportunity to self-nominate to host the Depot (always respecting the characteristics identified by the Isin). The only municipality to nominate itself was Trino Vercellese (you had 30 days from the publication of the map to apply:this means that there can now be no further applications).

The satisfaction of environmentalists, mayors and provinces

The decision generated several protest demonstrations in the area:“We learn with satisfaction that the efforts of recent weeks carried out by the TriNo Committee, by the minority municipal councilors of Trino and of all the other municipalities in the Province who, at the urging of our municipal councilors, expressed themselves against the Nuclear Waste Deposit, have led a first result:Mayor Pane gave in and revoked the self-nomination resolution", was the comment of the committee.

The TriNo committee said it was "opposed to this irresponsible choice" by Mayor Pane, who accused the "no" side of never having proposed alternatives:"a false one, as all of us have always reiterated the importance of hosting the deposit within one of the 51 sites considered suitable by scientific evaluations", added the committee, while “all scientific assessments had decreed Trino as an unsuitable site to host the deposit”.In fact, the map of suitable areas did not include Trino Vercellese, where nuclear waste has been stored since the end of the 1960s in the depots of the old "Enrico Fermi" nuclear power plant which is still in the decommissioning phase.

The resolution arrives a few days after the minority councilors registered an Agenda in the province aimed at also making the provincial President express his opposition to the filing, something he had never done formally.Now that opposition has come from both Vercelli and the nearby province of Alessandria.The message from the institutions is clear: the Deposit must be built in a suitable site and Trino is not.