The lower house of the Italian parliament has approved a bill that could lead to the reuse of nuclear energy in the country. Rome began to move away from this type of energy almost four decades ago, TASR informs, according to a report by the DPA agency.
The draft law does not allow the construction of nuclear power plants, but allows executive orders to be issued within one year of final approval in parliament, thus preparing the legal framework for a return to nuclear energy. At a later stage, it will enable the assessment of potential projects for the construction of reactors. The bill will now be debated by the Senate.
Italy abandoned nuclear power after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The country’s last nuclear power plants were shut down in 1990 following a nationwide referendum. Later, there were efforts to revive nuclear energy, but they had to be postponed after the disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed interest in reviving the nuclear sector after taking office, with the government mainly talking about small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors. But opposition parties and environmental groups criticized the plans, arguing that a return to nuclear power would be costly and controversial.
