15 Nov (NucNet): The dismantling of a 95-metre chimney at the Garigliano nuclear station in southwest Italy has been completed, Sogin, the state-owned nuclear decommissioning and radioactive waste management company, said on 14 November 2017. Sogin said the structure will be replaced by a new, much shorter steel chimney, which will be needed for decommissioning work at the site. Sogin began preparations for the demolition in March 2014. The company used a 12-metre mock-up to carry out tests and decided to demolish the chimney using a “controlled crushing technique”. Starting from the top of the chimney, the structure was gradually dismantled with materials falling inside the cone itself. The work, including the new chimney building, is costing about €10m ($11.8m). The demolition produced about 830 tonnes of waste, Sogin said. Contaminated material has been treated and stored in the plant’s interim repository. The Garigliano plant is a 150-MW boilng water reactor that began commercial operation in June 1964 and was permanently shut down in March 1982. Italy has estimated the cost of its nuclear decommissioning and waste management programme at €7.2bn After the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, Italy phased out nuclear power and for several years has been engaged in decommissioning its four nuclear power reactors and associated nuclear fuel-cycle facilities.
