‘Contemporary Italy’ series to show its tech-savvy side

Italian Ambassador to Korea Federico Failla speaks during the “Italian Excellency in Decommissioning and Radwaste Management,” the first event of the “Contemporary Italy” series introducing how the country is leading innovation, at High Street Italia in southern Seoul, June 23. Courtesy of Italian Embassy in Seoul

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Italy is a country well-known for its art, fashion and food in Korea. However, modern-day Italy has much more to offer in fields such as aerospace, medicine and pharmaceuticals, energy, artificial intelligence (AI) and engineering.

The Embassy of Italy in Korea launched “Contemporary Italy,” a series of events promoting how tech-savvy the country is, and the first one presenting Italian technologies in nuclear decommissioning was held at High Street Italia in southern Seoul, June 23.

Titled “Italian Excellency in Decommissioning and Radwaste Management,” the event invited two experts from Sogin, a state-owned company responsible for decommissioning and radioactive waste management in Italy, to introduce and share Italy’s nuclear-plant-dismantlement technologies.

“Italy is a leader in many high-tech industries and today we discuss how to decommission nuclear power stations and how to treat radioactive waste,” Italian Ambassador to Korea Federico Failla said in the opening remarks.

“Each country makes choices about using nuclear power, but this is not the topic of today. This is not a meeting about whether to use it or not. But different choices make different problems ― the problem of radwaste management and the problem of decommissioning nuclear power stations.”

Representing Italian technology in this field were Sogin’s Development and Technological Innovation director Francesco Troiani and International Affairs director Mario Lazzeri. Troiani and Lazzeri participated in the event via video conferencing.

A pioneer in nuclear power in the mid-20th century, Italy decided to shut down its four nuclear plants due to environmental concerns. It established Sogin in 1999, which is in charge of the safe maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear power plants and the management of radioactive waste.

Sogin is a collaborating center of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and has a notable international presence with projects in 18 countries, providing assistance in decommissioning nuclear plants.

“Management of radioactive waste is a challenging task for all countries and the Italian government indicated the roles and responsibilities of Sogin very clearly, including the construction and operation of the National Radioactive Waste Repository,” Lazzeri said.

Troiani and Lazzeri explained how Italy is developing new technologies to provide safer and more innovative ways of dismantling nuclear plants.

Ku Jeong-hoe, CTO for Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Environment Research at the Korea Atomic Research Institute, said the presentation exceeded his expectations and will lead to new collaborations.

“Before I came here, I had no information about your technologies because your country is so famous for fashion, food and furniture, not for your technology. So after this meeting, I will try to make technical meetings with your staff,” Ku said.

Kang Jae-yueol, executive vice chairman of the Korea Atomic Industrial Forum, invited Sogin representatives to a nuclear decommissioning forum slated for December, suggesting future Italy-Korea cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.