Italy’s Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari (Sogin) has begun the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the Ersba-1 temporary storage for low-activity radioactive waste at the Caorso (Piacenza) NPP. Sogin will adapt it to satisfy the current safety standards required by sector regulations and legislation.
The 860 MWe boiling water reactor at Caorsa was closed in 1990 after just 12 years of operation and is now being decommissioned. The plant’s decommissioning licence was obtained in 2014. Work to dismantle the systems and components inside the reactor building began in November last year.
Work on the Ersba-1 storage, which is 50 metres long, 30 metres wide and about six metres high, will involve demolition of the roof, the concrete walls and the foundations. This will be followed by the reconstruction in the same area of the new warehouse, with a volume similar to that of the dismantled building. Finally, two gantries will be installed inside for the handling of the products and the plant systems.
At the Caorso plant, temporary operations are also underway at the Ersma intermediate waste storage, which only involve demolition of the internal parts. In 2023 the work was completed on the Ersba-2 temporary storage low activity waste, which is now in operation.
The adaptation of these three storages avoids the need for new temporary storage facilities on the site. They will receive existing radioactive waste and that produced by decommissioning activities, pending subsequent transfer for a national repository, when it is available.
During the course of decommissioning, a total of 3,400 tonnes of material will be dismantled, about 88% of which will be releasable after treatment and decontamination, while the remaining 12% will be managed as radioactive waste and stored on-site pending transfer to the planned national repository.
