Italy to introduce legislation for investment in SMRs

The Italian government plans to present a law that allows investment in small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), Minister of the Environment & Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin told the “Financial Times”. He said SMRs could be operational within 10 years.

“Atomic energy should account for at least 11% of the country’s total electricity consumption by 2050,” he noted, adding that Italy is trying to reduce its electricity consumption by 2050 and its dependence on imported fossil fuels. “To have a guarantee of continuity on clean energy, we must include a share of nuclear energy,” he said. He explained that renewable technologies such as solar and wind “cannot provide the security we need”.

Pichetto said he was confident that the historic “aversion” to nuclear power in Italy can be overcome, given that the most recent technology has “different levels of safety and benefits families and businesses”.

Italy was a leading nuclear power-producing country in the 1960s but chose to phase out all nuclear plants after a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990. The fourth Berlusconi government attempted to launch a new nuclear power programme but that was also rejected by a referendum in 2011, shortly after the Fukushima accident.

In a recent survey commissioned by environmental group Legambiente, 75% of 1,000 respondents expressed scepticism that nuclear energy was a solution to Italy’s energy problems and 25% opposed it for safety reasons. However, 37% said they believed that nuclear energy could help Italy if the technology were safer.

Pichetto noted that Italy had retained nuclear competence with cutting-edge research institutes and Italian companies active in the nuclear supply chain in foreign markets. “It’s a question of perception, awareness,” he said. “Young people are more aware, older people less. I’m from the Chernobyl generation and when they hear about nuclear power (…) they automatically say no.”

Pichetto also referred to the restrictions imposed by the government on the construction of photovoltaic parks on agricultural land. He said SMRs are more efficient, as generating 300 MWe would require only four hectares of land. “Italy has peculiar cartographic characteristics (…) it does not have huge free spaces for solar panels.” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has warned of the threat to Italy’s food security from widespread deployment of photovoltaic panels.