On this webpage, lecturers and students of the M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering deal with some current issues related to nuclear subjects in order to answer questions and provide tools for the com-prehension and the indepth analysis of the topics. The initiative is addressed to students interested in nuclear engineering, but also to the information and communication sector as well as the public audience.
National Radioactive Waste Repository
On January 5th 2021, the National Chart of the Potentially Suitable Sites (in Italian CNAPI) to host the National Radioactive Waste Repository was published. The CNAPI was prepared by Sogin, the Italian Public Company in charge of decommissioning of nuclear plants and radioactive waste management, and it was drawn up on the basis of technical and safety criteria set by ISPRA, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (in Italian Istituto Superiore per la Prevenzione e la Ricerca Ambientale). .
What is radioactive waste?
The use of radioactivity, nuclear reactions and their properties leads to the production of radioactive materials which become radioactive waste when they can no longer be used. Read More
Radioactivity is the physical phenomenon through which some atomic nuclei, known as radionuclides, spontaneously transform (“decay”) into more stable atomic nuclei, emitting the so-called ionizing radiation. The process takes place after a specific time, which corresponds to the mean lifetime of the radionuclide. In a nuclear reaction, two nuclei interact producing other nuclei and radionuclides. The radionuclides spontaneously exist in nature or they can be man-made for various purposes. As a matter of fact, radioactivity, nuclear reactions and their properties are used in many sectors: from medicine to industry and research. The use of radioactivity and nuclear reactions leads to the production of radioactive materials which become radioactive waste when they can no longer be used. These materials, considered radioactive waste, emit ionizing radiations and for this reason they must be managed in a proper way to avoid being hazardous to men and the environment.
Who produces them in Italy?
Currently, various sectors produce radioactive waste in Italy. The main ones are medical, industrial and research sectors. In addition, a part of our radioactive waste derives from the operation and decommissioning of our nuclear reactors. Read More
The healthcare sector produces radioactive waste in the fields of diagnostics, therapy and medical research. An example of radioactive waste related to this sector derives from the decommissioning of particle accelerators used to produce radiopharmaceuticals and for the treatment of tumors. Various industrial activities, such as the paper, food, automotive and aeronautical, use radioactive sources, mainly Cobalt 60 and Cesium 137. In those sectors, radiation is used to detect welds and look for defects in mechanical components, to sterilize food, measure thicknesses, calibrate tools and balance movable surfaces. Radioactive materials, such as phosphorus (P-32 and P-33), sulfur (S-35), tritium (H-3), carbon (C -14) and iodine (I-123) are used in the fields of biomolecular, biological, biomedical and environmental research. Furthermore, in Italy, we had four nuclear power plants in operation from the 1960s to 1987 and almost twenty nuclear research reactors of which four are still operative. The operational phase of these reactors, as well as their decommissioning, produce radioactive waste.
Photographs of medical devices
Is all radioactive waste the same?
No, they’re not. Radioactive waste is classified based on its activity. There is low-level radioactive waste, intermediate-level radioactive waste and high-level radioactive waste. Read More
The activity is defined as the number of decays which a certain amount of material containing radionuclides experiences per unit of time. The activity depends on the mean lifetime and the number of radionuclides contained in a certain amount of material and therefore it decreases over time. For this reason, the current strategy for radioactive waste management requires their confinement inside barriers that isolate the emitted ionizing radiations for a sufficient time so that the activity reaches negligible values compared to the natural radioactivity background. Natural radioactivity derives from naturally occurring radioactive and nuclear processes to which we are continuously exposed to. An example of this is the need to monitor the concentration of radioactive Radon in closed environments. There is low-level radioactive waste, intermediate-level radioactive waste and high-level radioactive waste based on the activity of a certain radioactive material. In Italy, there has been produced waste belonging to low, medium and high-level radioactive waste. .
Where is the Italian radioactive waste currently stored and why should it be moved?
In Italy, the low and medium-level radioactive waste is currently stored in several temporary re-positories whose capacity is close to saturation. Furthermore, the temporary repositories were not designed to provide the final radioactive waste disposal.
Almost the entire Italian high-level radioactive waste is currently stored abroad waiting for the availability of a facility to accomodate it in Italy. Read More
Temporary repositories for low-level and very low-level radioactive waste are hosted in about twenty sites, distributed in various Italian regions. They are often found nearby permanently shut down nuclear reactors where Sogin is conducting activities for a safe maintenance and decommissioning.
These temporary repositories are structures with a project life cycle of about 50 years and are pro-gressively exhausting their accommodation capacities. Given the lack of a National Repository to host waste that is continuously produced in Italy, these repositories will have to be expanded or doubled, as well as constantly maintained in accordance with the law.
Moreover, in the next years, the high-level radioactive waste from the spent fuel used in Italian nu-clear reactors will come back from abroad. This is currently stored in France, Belgium and United Kingdom, where it is being reprocessed. Reprocessing of nuclear fuel allows to recover the fissile and fertile materials (uranium and plutonium), that are largely present in the spent fuel, and to recycle them to produce fresh fuel. The remaining of this process, i. e. fission products and metallic components of the fuel assembly, is compress and/or verified into a glass matrix (“conditioned”) to be transported and log-term stored. The conditioned waste of fuel reprocessing represents almost the entire high-level radioactive waste that our country should manage. Once it comes back to Italy, reprocessing waste must be safely stored in a temporary way according to international standards before a final geological repository is built.
The international safety standards of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), equires a permanent radioactive waste repository, equipped with engineered barriers. The permanent repository must guarantee the isolation of radioactive waste, until its radioactivity decays to level that do not represent an hazard for human health or the environment.
Location of the temporary radioactive waste repositories. Image taken from www.depositonazionale.it
What will the National Repository be?
The National Repository will be a superficial infrastructure allowing a definitive and safe disposal of our radioactive waste. Read More
This structure will occupy a total surface of 110 hectares and will be able to host up to 78.000 square meters of low-level radioactive waste. Within the site, about 17.000 square meters of intermediate-level and high-level radioactive waste will be temporarily stored and subsequently transferred in a repository suitable to its final containment. The National Repository will be a superficial infrastructure for the low-level radioactive waste dis-posal, while the final repository for intermediate and high-level radioactive waste will be a geological repository, located at a depth of about 500 m underground. Together with the National Repository, the Technological Park will be built: this infrastructure will be an applied research and training center in the field of nuclear decommissioning, radioactive waste management and radiation protection, as well as environmental protection. The Technological Park, which will cover an area of about 40 hectares, represents a real opportunity for the economic and research system, further contributing to the sustainable development of the territory where it will arise. A total investment of approximately 900 million euros is required to build the National Repository and the Technological Park. It is estimated that the National Repository will be built in 4 years and it is expected, according to current plans, that it will start operating by 2029.
What are the risks of living near a radioactive waste repository?
Radioactive waste is neither particularly dangerous nor difficult to manage when compared with other toxic waste produced by human activities. The amount of radioactive waste is very small compared to waste produced by other activities, such as transport, heavy industry and the non-nuclear electricity generation. Infrastructures such as the National Repository are the safest solution for radioactive waste disposal. The technologies used in it have been extensively tested and are already being exploited in many other countries. Read More
Sites similar to the Italian National Repository have been built worldwide and have proved to be extremely safe. In fact, no incidents related to the emission of radioactive material which could harm human health or the environment occurred, neither during the operation phase of these repositories nor during the transport of radioactive materials to the sites. The safety of the structure is guaranteed by engineering and natural barriers placed in series. In the case of the Italian Repository 3 engineering barriers in metal, concrete and reinforced concrete are foreseen, as well as a natural barrier, convincing of an artificial mound of inert and water-resistant materials. This latter coverage will provide additional protection to the repository and it will allow the harmonisation of the infrastructure with the surrounding environment. The improper disposal of radioactive waste, on the other hand, can cause risks. In this regard, we recall the Goiâna accident, which occurred in 1987 in Brazil. A radioactive source of cesium-137, used for radiotherapy treatments and left unattended in an abandoned hospital, was stolen. The consequences of the theft and then the sale of this radioactive source is considered “one of the worst radiological accidents” by the IAEA. 250 people were seriously contaminated and 4 of them died from the exposure to radiation.
Images taken from www.depositonazionale.it (on the right photograph of the French Radioactive waste of L’Aube)
In 2018, Politecnico di Milano hosted a lecture on the project, the safety and the environmental issues related to the National Radioactive Waste Repository.
DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION of Dr. Fabio Chiaravalli, Director of the National Repository and the Technological Park.
On this website you can find everything you need to know about the National Repository, from its detailed description to how to involve public opinion in decision-making processes.
Here you will find a description, organized in thematic files of the various aspects related to the de-commissioning of nuclear waste. We particularly point out the file “Radioactive waste: myths and reality”.
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