Protests stop Italian nuclear dump

Without locals being consulted, a cabinet decree singled out the town of 7,000 as the lone repository, effective immediately, because of salt caverns experts rated as potentially suitable for highly radioactive waste. Immediately the secretly made decision got out, residents and outsiders blocked oil wells, a main rail link and eight roads, including three motorways, and shut down shops and businesses. Up to 150,000 people marched last Sunday in what was described as the largest demonstration ever in the southern region of Basilicata, which has a population of about half a million. Thousands demonstrated regularly, some camping out at the storage site, and thousands more marched on parliament in Rome.
Scanzano Jonico residents on Thursday greeted the government's about-face with cheers and tears of joy. "A nightmare is over," said Filippo Bubbico, president of the Basilicata region. The local fury was fuelled by the belief that the waste was to be palmed off onto the poorer south because leaders did not dare pick a site in the more prosperous and influential north. Local resident Carlo Carlucci said, "They just consider us sheep not capable of fighting. But we have shown how tough we are and that local pride is unbeatable."
The government has now charged a scientific committee to name a new site within 18 months. That doesn’t mean, though, that Scanzano Jonico is in the clear. The director of the National Geophysics Institute has said it’s the only secure location in Italy for a deep disposal site.
Located in an area of outstanding natural beauty and surrounded by olive trees, vineyards and orange groves, Scanzano has a successful economy based on tourism and agriculture and boasts zero unemployment, compared to 19% in the rest of the generally poor south. Locals fear the dump would contaminate their water supplies and could destroy the fledgling tourism. They also have health concerns, arguing that some of the waste will remain dangerous for 150,000 years.
The demonstrations in Scanzano Jonico struck a chord throughout the country, reawakening a deeply rooted mistrust of things nuclear. After a referendum 16 years ago, all of Italy’s four nuclear power stations were closed down in 1987. But the spent fuel from them is now perceived as a security risk. "We have this terrible situation with more than 100 sites. They are a danger to the population", said the Minister for Relations with Parliament, Carlo Giovanardi. "There is even talk of radioactive waste in hospital waste tips." The waste is thought to be too easily accessible and authorities fear that it could be used to build a dirty bomb. In February, fearing accidents, natural catastrophes or terrorist attacks, the government declared a state of emergency in the areas containing nuclear plants. The Minister for Regional Affairs, Enrico La Loggia, says the government will be more sensitive when choosing the next site, but "the issue can no longer be put off".
There have been nuclear waste disposal protests in various countries recently. This week, demonstrators protesting the U.S. government's decision to bury nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, jeered President George W. Bush when he visited Las Vegas, 145 kilometres away. Protests also continued in South Korea this week against a proposed nuclear waste dump in the southwestern city of Puan. Several people were taken to hospital after scuffles between protesters and police. And earlier this month, anti-nuclear protesters unsuccessfully tried to halt a shipment of highly radioactive nuclear waste travelling from a reprocessing plant in France to a storage dump in Gorleben, Germany. The demonstrators’ first aid teams reported that “brutal police” injured at least 85 activists.