The story of nuclear energy in Italy is increasingly reminiscent of the tale of the fox and the grapes. You want something, you can't get it and you say it wasn't worth it. Let's forget about the repealing referendums of very distant years which today have little to do with new and future generation nuclear power. What is of interest is the ability and seriousness to face a problem complex topicor evaluating every aspect.
The centre-right government has so far not shone on energy issues as was the case with the government of Mario Draghi. The energy issue has never been high on the agenda Giorgia Meloni. Yet it is a question that disturbs the minds of the most astute rulers. These two years of the war in Ukraine have put Europe in front of options of historic importance, without even having too much time available. " To be independent you need to have the energy, but also the attitude not to say no to anything" said Eni's CEO Claudio Descalzi al Corriere della Sera.
Italy was first, but….
Too hastily we forget that Enrico Mattei in 1962 it built the first and largest thermonuclear power plant in Europe. It was built in four years and was another of Mattei's challenges, of which Prof says today. Alberto Clo “You cannot extract, like in a puzzle, only the elements you like (Meloni and Mattei piano editor's note) but they must be considered in their entirety."
The accidents at the Chernobiyl power plants in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 sowed terror and anguish, there is no doubt. But fortunately, research and investments have reached new and extraordinary frontiers in many parts of the world. Why must political Italy stand by and watch when state-controlled companies invest in fusion outside national borders and work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Or do Italian start-ups have to go to France to work on mini reactors?
Who believes it and who doesn't
In 2023 the Italian Parliament voted one motion to evaluate the possibility of using new nuclear power in the energy transition. The Chamber of Deputies has scheduled the discussion for May on a new bill presented this time by the Noi Moderati group. “We are suffering from decades of short-sighted and wrong energy policies, it is time to change, to aim for energy self-sufficiency with a mix of renewables and nuclear of the latest generation, to reduce costs and polluting emissions" say the parliamentarians. If we really want to fight climate change with renewable sources, Italy has the ability to (re)take the chimney. We were the first, we ended up at the back.
The new proposal aims to promote a national strategy, but also requests that the government adopt consequent measures within 12 months of the entry into force of the law. In other words, create next-generation nuclear power plants. The proposal has the flavor of a challenge from the right to those who still retreat or do not move away from their usual "against" positions. Hasn't the time come for the left to also look more deeply at the issue and not remain barricaded, while science and technologies move forward? Felice Ippolito, internationally renowned scientist, one of the fathers of Italian nuclear power, was a member of the PCI for a long time.
Is it a right-wing battle?
La energy transition It's a long journey with many pitfalls. Italy and Europe, although supported by a strong demand for gas and oil, risk becoming "like a Ferrari without petrol" to quote Descalzi again. The discussion of the proposal of the group founded by Maurizio Lupi it will be in May. The left, the Democratic Party in particular, has time to develop a clear and unequivocal proposal that explains to its people why a reform/transition of the country's energy system should not also include clean energy, the result of research and innovative and safe technologies.
Italy has to face years in which the famous mix is obtained by putting everything together and then freeing itself from fossil ballast. Nuclear and renewables can go together for a long time. Elly Shlein he knows it's a political game but if the right ends up really moving on this front – antics of Matteo Salvini aside - on the left there will be room for despondency.
Dear Dr. Unfair
Reading your article, which is totally agreeable, I felt a sense of sadness. In the 70s and partly in the 80s, I contributed professionally, in national companies, to the construction of important components for nuclear power plants, destined for Italy, but also abroad, Germany, France and Spain. Our scientific and industrial entities had significant know-how on the subject, which placed us among the first in the world. Due to an irrational emotional drive, instead of demanding new and greater investments in research and safety, we preferred to "throw the baby out with the bathwater" and became the object of financial exploitation and political blackmail by foreign energy suppliers . We have dispersed an immense heritage of knowledge, work and wealth.
I would like the new generations, in their own interest, to be much more astute. Unfortunately with the various movements around Gretina, of the latest generation, of eco-environmentalists etc. you can't be very optimistic. I hope I'm wrong.