The recovery of strategic metals from end-of-life military equipment and the potential deployment of small nuclear reactors at the Defence’s energy-intensive facilities are part of the redevelopment plan for the nine plants of the Agenzia industrie difesa (AID). The programme, presented by Director General Fiammetta Salmoni, identifies Noceto, in the province of Parma, as a potential nuclear hub and assigns the Military Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant in Florence a project developed with Leonardo to extract critical raw materials from electronic circuit boards destined for disposal as waste.

The recycling chain concerns equipment, chips and components from military systems that can no longer be used. According to DG, “every year, Italy’s defence industry decommissions tonnes of electronic equipment: in 2025 alone, Leonardo’s Italian sites generated hundreds of tonnes of electronic waste, more than half of it from the Electronics Division". The objective is to intercept materials leaving plants as waste and feed them back into the national supply chain. An internal Agency document indicates that one tonne of military electronic circuit boards may contain between 100 and 300 grams of gold, compared with 5 grams in a conventional board, as well as silver, palladium, copper, tin, nickel and tantalum. Advanced radar modules also contain gallium, a European strategic raw material subject to Chinese export controls. “Recovering it in Florence would reduce dependency", Salmoni says, referring to the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act, which sets a target for 25 per cent of strategic raw materials to come from recycling by 2030.

The Agency operates nine sites across Italy, engaged in activities ranging from munitions and explosives to pharmaceutical production. Capua produces blank cartridges; Florence hosts the only state pharmaceutical plant manufacturing medicines for the Armed Forces; Fontana Liri is dedicated to gunpowder; and Torre Annunziata to gas masks. Noceto carries out the demilitarisation and safe pulverisation of munitions that have reached the end of their operational life. The site is equipped with large refurbished furnaces. Baiano di Spoleto, where artillery shells, ammunition for tanks and armoured vehicles, mortar and hand grenades, and ballistic vests are treated, was also identified by the Director General as a particularly energy-intensive facility to be considered for nuclear pilot projects.

The energy-consumption study commissioned by Salmoni identified the plants where Small Modular Reactors could have the greatest application. Internal documents estimate that the nine Aid sites have an annual energy requirement of approximately 21 GWh; next-generation 50 MW SMR systems could generate around 394 GWh annually, exceeding the Agency’s requirements and potentially allowing the sale of surplus electricity. In the meantime, the enabling law on sustainable nuclear energy has been published in the Official Gazette: Parliament has set out principles and objectives for Italy’s return to nuclear power, and the Government will have to adopt one or more legislative decrees on the production and use of nuclear energy within the next twelve months. Salmoni, one of the few women in senior positions within the Armed Forces, thus places the project within the framework of a Green Defence approach encompassing supply security, resource recovery and environmental sustainability.