Confagricoltura Piemonte on nuclear waste deposits: Not only in our garden!

The sites identified in the region are 8, of which 2 in Turin (Caluso-Mazzè-Rondissone and Carmagnola) and another 6 are in the province of Alessandria (Alessandria-Castelletto Monferrato-Quargnento, Fubine-Quargnento, Alessandria-Oviglio, Bosco Marengo-Frugarolo , Bosco Marengo-Novi Ligure, Castelnuovo Bormida-Sezzadio).

" We must be clear: we cannot think of protecting quality agriculture and the memory of the landscape by transforming our territory into an area dedicated to the disposal of nuclear waste ", declared Enrico Allasia, president of Confagricoltura Piemonte. " In the park areas or in those protected by Unesco, agricultural enterprises have for some time been rightly subject to a series of significant constraints, which however have a significant impact on economic growth: today, a few kilometers away from these areas, the Piedmont countryside as an ideal place for the construction of 8 radioactive waste deposits. For this reason - adds Allasia - we express our total dissent on the areas identified and ask that the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Economic Development reconsider the opportunity of the choices adopted, dealing with local institutions ".

Confagricoltura reminds us that in Piedmont there are already 3 sites where 4 representative plants of the entire nuclear fuel cycle are located and: ex FN-SO.GIN plant in Bosco Marengo, EUREX-SO.GIN plant in Saluggia, Avogadro deposit in Saluggia and Nuclear power plant "E. Fermi" - SO.GIN of Trino. The Sorin industrial complex is located in Saluggia, as also specified by Arpa Piemonte, in which radiopharmaceutical production, nuclear research and radioactive waste collection activities were carried out in the past. Piedmont also has the largest quantity of nuclear fuel irradiated at national level stored in the Avogadro deposit in Saluggia , in an area characterized by a high vulnerability of the superficial aquifer and subject to a high risk of flooding. " Also for all these reasons - concludes Allasia - it is appropriate that we look elsewhere for new storage sites of nuclear waste. This is not a prejudicial closure, but an objective one, so we feel fully entitled to say: not only in our garden ! "