Italian radioactive waste management

In Italy, after the 1987 decision to shut-down the existing nuclear power plants, the radioac-tive waste is stored at the sites of production, while the waste coming from industrial, R&D and sanitary sectors is stored in temporary waste management facilities. The spent nuclear fuel has been transferred abroad (France, United Kingdom) for the reprocessing; it will come back as vitrified waste by the 2025, as defined by the signed agreements between It-aly and these countries. The European directives and international legal context impose the realization of final repositories, to safely dispose the different kind of radioactive waste in each nuclear country. Sogin, the Italian waste management organization, is working to lo-cate, build and operate the national disposal repository. The procedure to realize the repos-itory has been slowed down and nowadays is at the first stages of the siting process; it re-quires a long period to be completed, while the vitrified waste will turn back in Italy by the 2025. In this context, intermediate solutions have to be considered, to safely manage the radioactive waste in the meantime, applying the current safety standards. An analysis about the development of the national repository, considering the timeline of its realization, and the implications about the safety of existing storage facilities currently hosting the radi-oactive waste has been performed. The results may add further elements of knowledge to support the future decisions about the final disposal of Italian radioactive waste.