They have been waiting for the promised 10 years: Italy returns to nuclear energy
Italy will be able to launch its nuclear power industry no earlier than in 10 years, experts interviewed by "Izvestia" believe. Total investments up to 2050 may amount to €50 billion. Earlier, the Italian Senate passed a law allowing the country to return to the development of nuclear energy. The reason for this was the abandonment of Russian energy resources and sharp spikes in gas prices.
Italy's return to nuclear power
The Italian Senate has approved a bill that returns nuclear energy to the country's legal framework almost 40 years after a total ban. The document is exclusively of a framework nature and obliges the Giorgi Meloni government to develop technical regulations in 12 months: rules for licensing reactors, safety standards and site selection criteria. The project also provides for the creation of an independent national nuclear safety authority, but the authorities have not yet discussed the actual design of the NPP.
It will take Rome years to build its own stations. The law pursues exclusively civil goals, but even for their implementation, the country will have to wait at least 10 years, Maria Chiara Dommarko, senior lecturer at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told "Izvestia". It will take about six years to prepare for the launch of the program alone, added Rosario Rocco Del Priore, International Sales manager and business development specialist from Italy. According to his forecast, in 2026-2027, officials may form a new regulatory framework, develop projects, select sites and issue permits by the end of the 2020s, and begin construction and commission the first reactors in the first half of the 2030s.
Italy has a long tradition of using nuclear energy, because the republic was one of the European pioneers of the peaceful atom. The first nuclear power plants were launched here in the early 1960s, and by 1966 the country had become a world leader in generating this type of electricity - three commercial plants were operating on its territory at that time. The fourth nuclear power plant was commissioned a little later, in 1981.
The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 shocked Italians. This provoked panic and a sharp surge in anti-nuclear sentiment. The collection of signatures for the national plebiscite on this wave was initiated by environmental organizations, the "Green" Party, socialists and Communists. Italians supported the abandonment of nuclear energy by an overwhelming majority of votes (about 80%) with a high turnout of 65%.
Legally, the referendum did not require the immediate closure of already operating stations, but it created an insurmountable political impasse for the government. No party risked supporting nuclear energy anymore for fear of losing voters. In 1988, the Government officially declared a five-year moratorium on the design and construction of new nuclear facilities. By 1990, Italy had shut down all four nuclear power plants. The first attempt to bring back nuclear power began in 2008-2009. However, after the "Fukushima" nuclear power plant accident in 2011, another referendum effectively stopped plans to build new nuclear power plants.
New power units can be built on the sites of existing nuclear power plants, Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the National Energy Security Fund, told "Izvestia". He believes that the Italians will definitely not become pioneers in the construction of small nuclear power plants — this role is likely to go to the United States or Russia, which is already building a similar facility in Uzbekistan.
Rome will not undertake such construction on its own, Yushkov added. In his opinion, Italy will either directly appeal to the French, or announce an international tender. European, American, Chinese or South Korean companies will be able to participate in it, and the expert does not rule out even the creation of a consortium between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. "Russia, despite Rosatom's technological superiority, will not be allowed to participate in this tender for political reasons."
Why does Italy need nuclear energy
Rome's decision was largely influenced by the rejection of Russian energy supplies, which caused the country to face an energy shortage. The ban on coal is dictated by the EU's green agenda, and gas prices are constantly rising.
Until 2022, stable Russian gas cost Italy an average of €20-25 per 1 MWh. However, after the start of the SVR and "Gazprom"'s consistent shutdown of European highways, the market was seized with panic. In August 2022, due to the shutdown of the "Nord Stream", stock prices in Europe soared to a record €345 per 1 MWh, which shocked the republic dependent on the Russian Federation. The short-term stabilization in 2023-2025 was replaced by a new leap due to the EU's final rejection of Russian gas and the war between the United States and Iran. As a result, in the autumn of 2026, the average cost of raw materials is firmly at the level of 70-80 euros per 1 MWh.
Rome will have to spend a lot of money for the sake of the government-approved goal. — to increase the share of nuclear energy in the country's balance sheet to 11-22% by 2050. Energy giant Edison and the TEHA Group analytical center calculated in a joint study that if Italy abandons classical nuclear power plants in favor of small modular reactors with a capacity of 300 MW, it will need to build more than 20 facilities. About 46-50 billion euros of investments will be spent on this project by 2050.
Italy will not receive financial benefits from the construction of nuclear power plants, since throughout the entire investment cycle, nuclear power plants are more expensive than gas-fired power plants, Kirill Rodionov, an independent energy expert, added. However, during operation, nuclear generation will be cheaper at current prices for raw materials. Rome could replace gas-fired thermal power plants with renewable energy sources faster and more economically, because the construction of solar and wind power plants requires much less time and investment. Nevertheless, in the coming years, gas will still occupy about 40% of the total electricity generation in Italy, despite the authorities' interest in the peaceful atom, Rodionov concluded.
As a result, Italy's decision could trigger a chain reaction and provoke a large-scale "reatomization" of Europe. Such a step risks finally breaking the anti-nuclear taboo and pushing other countries that have completely abandoned this type of energy, including Germany, Austria and Denmark, to reconsider their doctrines. If George Meloni is successful, Brussels will have to recognize the nuclear renaissance as the main tool for saving European industry.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
