Remediation interventions in Italian industrial sites contaminated with NORM from the phosphate industry: law provisions, criteria and methods

摘要

In Italy from the end of the ‘50s up to the early ‘90s, some industrial plants located by the sea processed huge quantities of phosphorites for phosphoric acid production. Phosphogypsum wastes – such as slurry - were produced at a rate of some 105 t y-1 and disposed of in the sea until the mid ‘70s. After that phosphogypsum was collected in wide landfills within, or close to, the industrial areas. The problems to be faced when designing a remediation intervention for sites like these, where past work activities have left heavy environmental contamination and a huge quantity of wastes, can be summarised as follows: i) industrial plant decommissioning; ii) waste management; iii) landfill management; iv) radiation protection of the population and workers involved in the intervention; v) environmental protection; vi) law requirements relevant to chemical and radioactive contamination. A short review will be presented concerning sites and industrial plants in Italy for which the Ministry of the Environment has asked APAT, ISPESL and ISS - technical bodies entrusted with radiation protection tasks - to analyse remediation plans. Since the procedures to be followed were not yet determined, and the agreements to be reached were rather complex, the spontaneous creation of a working party among experts of the three institutes in order to issue joint official advices has been a new and highly positive experience.