Italy accelerates on nuclear power, but the waste storage facility moves away

The aim is to reach net zero by 2050 with at least 11 percent of energy produced by the new reactors, but everything depends on waste management.

• The evaluations of the sustainable nuclear platform will arrive by October, then a national program and an enabling law for implementation will arrive.
• According to Minister Pichetto, fourth generation reactors will be able to "burn waste to make new fuel" for mini-power plants.
• Meanwhile, the repository for old radioactive waste is postponed until at least 2039 and alternative solutions are being evaluated:leave almost everything as it is.

Italy is pushing the accelerator on new generation so-called "clean" nuclear power, even if it will not see the light for 15-20 years and with all the doubts of the case of environmentalist associations.While it still slows down, for many years, on the deposit of radioactive waste, well 78 thousand cubic meters of radioactive waste low and medium intensity produced by old generation nuclear power:even that won't be seen for 15-20 years, assuming it actually gets done.

This is the situation outlined quite clearly by him Minister of the Environment and, above all, of Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, during a hearing at Environment commissions of the House and Senate, who are carrying out a fact-finding investigation on the role of nuclear energy in the energy transition and in the decarbonisation process, which sees 2050 as its horizon.A role, that of nuclear energy, considered fundamental, because the hypothesis is to reach the Net zero 2050 with a quota between 11 and 22 percent of the total energy produced by nuclear power, and the remaining share produced from renewable sources.A hypothesis whose timing and results are however uncertain, both due to the time required for the research and due to its economic, as well as environmental, sustainability.

According to the minister's words, today the risk is that by the time the new power plants come into operation ("around 2040", according to Pichetto), there will still be no storage for the old waste, given that the hypothesis of a its entry into operation has already been postponed, initially scheduled for 2029, it has already been postponed by ten years to 2039, and it could easily be postponed again or even be canceled "because the procedures are long and complex".And above all because no territory has yet come forward to host it.

The "new vision" of nuclear power

Pichetto Fratin clarified that Italy will not return to the large nuclear plants of the past, such as first and second generation ones, but will focus on innovative technologies:small modular reactors (so-called Srms), safer and capable of generating energy with a reduced environmental impact.On paper, for now, since we are still only talking about prototypes.Small dimensions then, but not very small, because Pichetto ventured a comparison during his hearing:“the entire system of an Srm, therefore not only the small reactor, but including all the structures necessary to generate electricity and connect it to the grid, can have the size of a shopping mall and at the same time provide constant electricity to more than 500 thousand people".

There National platform for sustainable nuclear power, established by Mase and together with Aeneas and others Rs, a company controlled by the Energy Services Manager for the development of research activities in the electro-energy sector, will give its final assessments by the end of October which "will be the solid basis for the development and possible adoption by the government of a National program for sustainable nuclear power, both for the medium term in the field of small modular reactors, and in the long term for fusion".And by 2024 the enabling law for the production of nuclear energy will be presented, to be discussed in Parliament in 2025.

The minister illustrated the vision of a path that looks to 2040 and beyond, with a particular focus on fourth generation reactors, defined as AMRs, or "advanced modular reactors", in some cases so small as to be called microreactors.Which would be capable not only of producing energy but - and this is another very delicate and controversial step - "also of burn long-lived waste, transforming them into useful fuel, in a perspective of true circular economy, significantly reducing the decay time of this waste and consequently reducing or eliminating the need to build a repository".

The obstacle of the waste of the past

The deposit, in fact.Because in the meantime Italy still has to face a much more cumbersome and difficult to resolve reality:the management of radioactive waste produced by old nuclear power plants, which have been closed for decades.The waste is stored in well 100 depots on 22 sites spread across the country, a temporary situation that not only poses security risks, but exposes Italy to infringement procedures by the European Commission.

To solve this problem, the minister reiterated the importance of building a national repository for radioactive waste, a central facility that should safely house low- and medium-level waste, while working to find definitive geological solutions for high-level waste. high activity.However, Pichetto himself admits that the path towards the construction of the depot is marked by delays and obstacles and pushes the deadlines for the actual entry into operation of the depot even further.

Only last December the Paper national of toree thedonee has identified 51 potentially suitable sites, but the final choice is still far away:before the Charter can be approved, a long Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) procedure is necessary, which could require years of discussion with local administrations and further analyses.And above all, none of the 51 local administrations identified so far have given their consent to host the radioactive waste deposit, although according to Pichetto this could be "a great development opportunity".

In short, the minister admits, "based on current estimates, assuming that all procedural phases are successful, it will be possible to obtain the single authorization for the national warehouse in 2029, with the expected commissioning by 2039”. Assuming that it is actually done at this point, because given the long timescales "we are also evaluating alternative solutions".

Which?For example, continue to use the structures that already exist:“Often these are structures, present in the south, center and north, including islands, with which the territory has coexisted for many years and which in some cases simply require modernization in structural and technological terms.The idea that is therefore being evaluated is to modernize the existing structures, possibly expanding them, taking advantage of the possibility of doing so in locations potentially already suitable for the safe management of radioactive waste".In practice, leave everything as it is now, or almost.