Removal of Garigliano liquid waste facility under way

Friday, 25 April 2025

The redundant system is located in a building called RW, on two floors, inside four rooms, and is composed of: supply and discharge pipes, three tanks - already emptied in 2023 of the sludge contained within them - and all the support equipment.

Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin) - established in 1999 to take responsibility for decommissioning Italy's former nuclear power sites and locating a national waste store - said that since these components are contaminated, before starting the works, Sogin and its subsidiary Nucleco adapted the systems of the premises (electrical, ventilation, radiological monitoring), to guarantee safety in every phase of the activity that will be carried out for the most complex parts. This work will employ cutting robots, specifically designed and built, that the technicians will guide remotely. The operations will be completed within the year, it said.

_{(Image: Sogin)}

A total of about 50 tonnes of metallic material will be dismantled during the removal of the old system. At the end of the smelting and decontamination treatments, it is estimated that only 15 tonnes of radioactive waste will remain, in line with Sogin's strategy of minimising such waste, which will be stored in the temporary depots of the site until its subsequent transfer to the national repository, once available.

To guarantee the continuity of the decommissioning activities underway at the Campania plant, Sogin has built and put into operation in 2022 the new system for the treatment of radioactive liquid effluents.

Garigliano, a 150 MWe boiling water reactor, was connected to the grid in January 1964 and was shut down in 1982. Italy operated a total of four nuclear power plants starting in the early 1960s, but decided to phase out nuclear power in a referendum that followed the 1986 Chernobyl accident. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990.