Italy Pulls Plug on Nuclear Power 'Indefinitely'

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Last month's disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant has almost certainly killed off Italy's plans to return to nuclear power in the coming decade. Following the government's decision last month to freeze its planned nuclear programme for a year, the upper house of the Italian parliament, or senate, has this week voted to suspend nuclear power development "indefinitely."

Italy now joins Germany and Switzerland, which have also put a temporary hold on their respective nuclear plans as a result of the disaster. For related news, see March 18, 2011, article - Germany to Shut Down Oldest Nuclear Power Stations and March 16, 2011, article - Switzerland Halts Nuclear Plant Programme.

The decision will come as a major setback to national power utility Enel SpA (BIT:ENEL) (Rome, Italy), which had been working with France's Electricite de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) (EDF) (Paris, France) toward building up to four 1,600-megawatt (MW) plants using third-generation European pressurised reactors. For more information, see March 2, 2009, article - EDF and Enel Plan Four Nuclear Power Plants in Italy.

The government's earlier decision to postpone a public referendum on nuclear power in June was made to avoid anti-nuclear sentiment from the Japanese disaster, permanently killing off any chance of a return to nuclear power in the future. Italy dismantled its nuclear power plants in 1986, in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The government is now planning to wait until the European Union's "stress tests" are performed on all nuclear power plants and a new nuclear energy strategy is drawn up. For related news, see March 29, 2011, article - Europe's Nuclear Reactors Face 'Stress Tests'.

"Fukushima has shown us that major accidents are possible," said Paolo Romani, the Economic Development Minister. "I don't say that voluntarily, having said that I was and remain pro-nuclear. Nuclear power is not culturally acceptable at the moment."

Today, Italy derives 80% of its power from fossil-fuel powered plants, with the remaining 20% coming from hydropower and renewables. The addition of nuclear power, with construction originally slated to begin in 2013, was expected to help reduce Italy's dependence on fossil fuel-based power to 50%, as well as reduce electricity imports and drastically cut the price of electricity in the country, which is among the highest in Europe.

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