Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). After multiple announcements, the government of fascist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni now wants to pass a framework law by the end of January 2025, with which the Republic of Italy wants to re-enter the nuclear energy market after 40 years. According to the news agency ‘ANSA’, the plan is to establish an authority to control the handling of nuclear power plants and the disposal of nuclear waste.
In addition, incentives for research in the nuclear field and campaigns are planned to raise awareness among Italians of the importance of nuclear energy. However, it will take about two years before the legal framework for the launch of nuclear power plants is in place, reported the Milan daily ‘Il Giornale’. According to Italian Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, ‘without nuclear energy, it is not possible to decarbonise electricity generation and ensure the country’s energy security’.
At the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, Meloni emphasised the strategic role of nuclear fusion, which ‘can produce clean, safe and unlimited energy’. Thanks to new technologies, nuclear energy could become a widely accessible resource. However, according to ‘Südtirol News’, the technical realisation of fusion reactors is still a long way off.
In order to rationalise the new entry, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso wants to form a national group with large companies such as Enel, Ansaldo Nucleare and the defence contractor Leonardo, which would produce and operate the latest generation of nuclear reactors, such as the Small Modular Reactor (Smr), which is described as ‘safe, clean and modular’. However, the possible return to nuclear energy has met with criticism. Ilaria Fontana and Emma Pavanelli, two members of parliament from the opposition Five Star Movement (M5S), criticised the ‘enormous costs’ associated with nuclear energy. ‘Citizens and businesses are already paying a lot of money for energy because we generate it with gas. With nuclear energy, costs will rise even more,’ the two parliamentarians warned.
Italy had abandoned nuclear energy in 1987 – one year after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster – following a referendum. The last nuclear power plants were shut down in 1990. In 2009, the then head of government Silvio Berlusconi wanted to reintroduce nuclear power, but failed because after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, around 94.5 per cent of Italians voted against the construction of new nuclear power plants in another referendum.
Deputy Prime Minister and Lega leader Matteo Salvini now wants to launch another referendum on re-entering nuclear energy. He argues that Italy is surrounded by neighbouring countries that generate energy through nuclear power plants and thus have a competitive advantage over Italian companies.
