Sogin transmitted the National Charter of Suitable Areas to the Ministry of Ecological Transition
16 March 2022
Yesterday, Sogin forwarded to the
Ministry of Ecological Transition the proposed
National Charter of Suitable Areas (CNAI) to host the
National Repository for radioactive waste and Technology Park, in compliance with the timeframe set out in Article 27, paragraph 5, of Legislative Decree no. 31/2010, i.e., within 60 days from the closure of the public consultation.
Sogin drew up the CNAI based on the results of the most relevant public consultation to date in Italy on a strategic infrastructure for the country, which began on 5 January 2021, with the publication of the proposed National Charter of Potentially Suitable Areas (CNAPI) and ended on 14 January.
The consultation, which Sogin managed with the utmost
transparency and completeness of information, and in which hundreds of stakeholders directly interested in the National Repository for radioactive waste and Technology Park project participated, was divided into three phases.
In the first, which lasted six months until 5 July 2021, Sogin collected over 300 comments and technical proposals from various stakeholders on the CNAPI and the National Repository project.
This phase was followed by the National Seminar, held from 7 September to 24 November 2021, and concluded on 15 December 2021, with the publication of the concluding Acts. The Seminar's work consisted of nine meetings. All streamed live. In addition to the opening and closing plenary sessions, seven working sessions were held, one national and six territorial, covering the regions involved in the CNAPI: Piedmont, Tuscany, Lazio, Apulia, Basilicata, Sicily, and Sardinia. More than 160 participants participated in the Seminar, which featured speeches by representatives of national and local institutions and bodies, associations, committees, and individual citizens.
After the Seminar, a second consultation phase was held in the following 30 days, as provided for by Legislative Decree no. 31/2010; the second phase of public consultation was held in the following 30 days, during which stakeholders were able to submit further observations and technical proposals also in light of the work carried out during the National Seminar.
The CNAPI proposal that Sogin forwarded to the Ministry of Ecological Transition was thus prepared based on more than 600 applications, observations, and propositions, totalling more than 25,000 pages consisting of deeds, documents, studies, technical reports, and maps, submitted over the course of a year following the publication of the CNAPI.
The regulation now stipulates that the Ministry of Ecological Transition, having acquired the technical opinion of the
National Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Inspectorate (ISIN), shall approve the map by its decree, in agreement with the Ministry of Sustainable Infrastructure and Mobility. The map shall then be published on the websites of Sogin, the two Ministries, and ISIN.
The publication of the CNAI shall then initiate the consultation phase aimed at collecting expressions of interest, which are not binding, to continue the participatory process on the part of the regions and local authorities in whose territories the suitable areas fall, to reach a shared decision on the localisation of the National Repository.