Renaissance of the Nuclear Kind In Italy

This week I was very pleased to see the headline “Enel, EDF to build Nuclear Plants in Italy” in the Aug 4, 2009 edition of the Wall Street Journal. What an exciting renaissance of nuclear power in Italy.

Italy was a pioneer of civil nuclear power, establishing the first scientific body to study nuclear in 1946. In 1952, Italy established an agency to develop and promote nuclear power; this agency was reorganized in 1960 to become CNEN (National Committee for Nuclear Energy).

At the time of the shutdown law in 1987 -- after the Chernobyl accident in Russia -- Italy had four operating nuclear plants: Latina, Garigliano, Trino Vercellese and Caorso and two units under construction at Montalto di Castro. Current plans call for building four new reactors at existing licensed sites.

Of course, I have to provide full disclosure here…l was especially pleased to hear this news because I was one of the young field engineers who started up the Caorso Plan for Enel in northern Italy.

With power costs in Italy currently one-third higher than in most of Europe and a generation mix of more than 60% natural gas, most imported, Italy sees nuclear as a way to address cost, emissions and import dependence simultaneously. More details can be found at the following link to the WSJ article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124932829249202353.html