Decommissioning of Italian Nuclear Power Plants. Experience and Future Plans

This paper is to illustrate the experience and future plans for decommissioning Italian NPPs, and the new organization, set to manage the whole decommissioning problem. Italian NPPs were shut down in the 1980s, and “deferred decommissioning (SAFSTOR)” was the selected decommissioning strategy, due to the lack of a repository for the disposal of radioactive waste. In 1999 the liberalization of the Italian electricity market led Enel to separate its nuclear activities, forming a new company named So.G.I.N., to which decommissioning Italian NPPs was committed. Considering pressures to adopt the “prompt decommissioning (DECON)” strategy, the Italian Minister of Industry, with the intent to accelerate the dismantling of Italian NPPs, presented the plans to create a national repository for nuclear waste and asked So.G.I.N. to revise the decommissioning plans, according to the new global strategy. ITALIAN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS EXPERIENCE Italian nuclear power generation started in the second half of the 1950s with the decision made by some private companies to construct the Latina, Garigliano, and Trino nuclear power plants. In 1962 Enel was founded as a public statutory body, with a law, which sanctioned the transfer of more than 1,200 electric utilities, including the nuclear utilities, to one national electricity board (the law of nationalization). In 1992 Enel was transformed by law into a joint-stock company, property of the Treasury. In the 1990s Enel was the third largest electric-power company in the western world, coming after EdF (France) and TEPCO (Japan). In 1999 the energy sold by Enel was 230 TWh, approximately 80% of the Italian electric energy demand. The Enel net generation capacity is approximately 57 GW. With its 79,000 employees Enel is serving more than 29 million consumers, by its 1 million-km grid. As concerns nuclear activities, since 1962 Enel has operated for decades, with high degree of safety and efficiency, the four Italian nuclear power plants (see locations on Fig. 1); Table 1 summarizes the data concerning technical features and operating histories of these plants. Furthermore, Enel has been involved in the development of innovative nuclear power plants (Advanced Light Water Reactors), foreseeing minimization of radioactive waste production, in collaboration with European, U.S. and other international organizations (EPRI, NUMARC, WANO, EEC, etc.). Enel also participated in initiatives concerning development and construction of a pilot nuclear power plant equipped with a fast reactor (33% share in E.S.K. Company) and operation of Creys-Malville commercial nuclear power plant equipped with a fast reactor (33% share in NERSA Company). The Italian nuclear power plants were shut down in the 1980s; in particular, Garigliano NPP has been shut down in 1982, following a decision made by Enel, based on technical and economical reasons, while Latina, Trino, and Caorso NPPs were shut down due to political reasons, following decisions made by the Italian government to stop nuclear energy generation, after the Chernobyl accident and the referendum that banned nuclear power in the country in 1987. 1 Europäische Schellbrüter Kernkraftwetksgesellschaft Mit beschränkter