Country banned reactors after Chernobyl disaster in 1986
Italy is ready for a return to nuclear power with draft laws on a regulatory path and a new governance scheme for the industry to be put forward by the end of the year, environment and energy security minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said.
In a video address to the Italian Nuclear Association (AIN) assembly, Fratin said if politics, entrepreneurship, and research work together, “this means that our country is also culturally ready to return to nuclear energy production”.
“The group chaired by professor Giovanni Guzzetta will present a draft delegation law by the end of the year to define a regulatory path and a new governance scheme for the system,” he said.
Fratin said in September that Guzzetta, the energy ministry’s legal adviser, “will produce a comprehensive analysis on nuclear, and what kind of laws we need to introduce”.
He added he hoped parliament would be able to approve the draft legislation in the course of 2025.
Fratin appointed Guzzetta to study how power stations based on new nuclear technology including small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors, which the government believes could support its green energy transition, could be exempted from Italy’s existing ban on nuclear plants.
Fratin added that as part of the plans for a return to nuclear the existing independent regulatory authority, the National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ISIN) will be strengthened.
Last month Fratin said the government was in talks with energy groups Enel, Ansaldo and defence business Leonardo to set up a state-backed company to develop nuclear power plants in Italy.
In May 2023, the Italian parliament backed prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan to include nuclear in the country’s energy mix as part of its decarbonisation efforts.
In its latest energy and climate plan, the government estimated nuclear power could meet up to 11% of domestic energy demand in 2050.
Italy banned nuclear energy after it was rejected in a national referendum following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and another in 2011 following the Fukushima-Daiichi accident. It shut down its last commercial reactors, Caorso and Enrico Fermi, in 1990.
The country was a pioneer of nuclear power and had four commercial nuclear plants – Caorso, Enrico Fermi, Garigliano and Latina – providing almost 5% of the country’s electricity production share at their peak in 1986-1987.
