Nuclear, Italy to test mini-reactors and national repository. Here's what will happen

With the latest energy strategy published by the government, Italy has decided to bet on a return to nuclear power with the establishment of a technical group in charge of reorganising the legislative framework and with the provision of a quota of energy from nuclear sources in the Pniec (National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan) to be guaranteed above all by small modular reactors (Smr). But the challenge of mini-reactors is not the only test awaiting the country, which is also committed to the construction of a national repository for the disposal of radioactive waste: a building block, the latter, on which the executive has defined a very precise road map recently reiterated by the Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. We talked about the two issues in a double interview with Alessandro Dodaro, head of Enea's Nuclear Department, and Mario Lazzeri, executive assistant to Sogin's CEO.

Small modular plants (Smr) are, as mentioned, at the heart of the government's strategy. 'These reactors,' Dodaro explained, 'are designed to be manufactured in a modular manner and then transported to the site where they are to be installed. In this way, the scale effect due to the small size of the reactor is recovered through mass production that minimises costs. The safety criteria remain identical to those of the larger third-generation reactors and should be the answer to the nuclear power of the future. l

Dodaro then emphasised 'that the small size means a smaller investment, at least initially, for the construction of the plant, and this, in a country like Italy that is moving back to nuclear power, would make it easier to realise'. The head of Enea's Nuclear Department recalled the share of energy from nuclear power hypothesised in the Pniec and clarified that it would be produced 'with a series of small reactors built in the places where there is the greatest interest and the greatest need for electricity. It may be the ideal solution and for Italy it may be the best solution in which we have great experience because the Italian industrial fabric has remained anchored and continues to work in the nuclear sector abroad. So we wouldn't really be starting from scratch.

For Dodaro, the contribution made by nuclear power is crucial for the differentiation of sources 'which is a fundamental aspect in any energy mix, not only in the Italian one. And it is important that we continue to invest in renewables because they must provide most of the electricity produced in Italy, but they are not enough on their own. Because in order to use a mix with only renewables, it is necessary to create very large and very expensive storage systems. Flanking the renewables with a certain percentage of nuclear energy or, in any case, a source that is continuous and guaranteed 24 hours a day regardless of the seasons and weather conditions is, therefore, fundamental, and this could be the role of nuclear power. Without neglecting,' Dodaro went on to remind us, 'the support that nuclear power could provide for energy-intensive sectors.

As for the national repository, it is, Lazzeri explained, 'a surface infrastructure for the safe management of all radioactive waste produced in Italy. The repository has two purposes: the first is to realise the final disposal of all very low-level and low-intensity waste, which is waste whose radioactivity decays to negligible values after 300 years. The second purpose, on the other hand, is the realisation of the safe temporary storage of high-intensity waste whose radioactivity decays after thousands of years. The disposal of the latter takes place today in geological repositories and, therefore, until a suitable geological repository is found, this waste is temporarily stored in the national repository. The timeframe of which, also according to the chronoprogramme provided by Minister Pichetto Fratin at a recent hearing, is as follows: commissioning in 2039 "with obtaining the single operating authorisation in 2029 and site selection indicatively in 2027," Lazzeri specified.