Daniele Pane, the Northern League mayor who wants nuclear waste:«Bring everything to Trino»

The first citizen to La Stampa:«I live here too, I have two small children:the waste is already there, but now it is not treated in a safe context;we need a structural solution."

In Trino, province of Alessandria, on the first hills of Monferrato, there is what remains of the Italian nuclear power plant, the Saluggia plant and 70 kilometers further south that of Bosco Marengo.Here, where nuclear waste is stored”low activity“, the nuclear waste of Great Britain, France and Slovakia could be disposed of.To say yes, he tells today The Press, is Daniele Pane, from the League and at the helm of Trino since 2018.The government, in the Energy decree approved on Monday, introduced a rule that allows municipalities and military sites to self-nominate for the national storage.Something similar to what Sogin, a public company in charge of dismantling nuclear plants, did in 2015 with the list of 67 possible sites.List from which Trino was excluded.Now, faced with the possibility of self-nomination and the rejection of the various places on the list, he can return.

The mayor:«We need a structural solution»

Not everyone, explains the Turin newspaper, agrees with Pane.Monday evening about fifteen
mayors of the Alexandrian side gathered in Camino.Among them also the vice president of
province, Matteo Gualco, of Forza Italia.“For a crust of bread they would like to make us a territory from which it is better to stay away,” declared the mayor of Camino Giorgio Rondano.And Legambiente doesn't fit in Trino.«What technically hadn't gone through the door comes back through the window.It's a coup", declares the activist, who among other things lives a few steps from the power station, Fausto Cognasso.However, the problem must be solved somehow.Also because the data speaks:In Italy there are still 31 thousand cubic meters of radioactive waste, 30% in Lazio, 21 in Lombardy and 19 in Piedmont where, however, remember The Press, there is over 70% of the radioactive activity.Pane rejects the criticism:«We've been talking about the national repository for 30 years and we haven't even been able to find an area to build it.But in the meantime here in Trino there are temporary warehouses, which are precarious and unsafe.If no territory offers its availability, I believe we should re-evaluate areas like ours which already host almost all radioactive waste today."And again:«Do they call me crazy or someone who wants money?I don't care, I won't even be mayor anymore when they eventually arrive.I only care about the safety of my citizens.I live here too, I have two small children:the waste is already there, but now it is not treated in a safe context;we need a structural solution."

(on the cover, the loading of the envelope with the radioactive material at the Trino Vercellese railway yard, Vercelli, in an archive photo from 6 April 2003.Photo ANSA / FRANCESCO DEL BO)