The dress rehearsals for Italy's return to thenuclear energy. The popular bill machine launched on October 24th with a press conference at the Chamber of Deputies by the pro-atom committee has officially started. The political referent is the action leader Carlo Calenda flanked by the very young secretary of the Italian radicals, Matteo Hallissey. The group has the support of highly authoritative scientists, such as Marco Ricotti and Giuseppe Zollino, and even of repentant no-atomists, such as Friends of the Earth, who after 45 years of militancy on the other side of the fence are now convinced supporters of the theses illustrated in detail by Calenda in Web portal of his party.
Nuclear: Promoters Expect to Collect 50 Signatures Quickly
The promoters, including the Einaudi Foundation, expect to quickly collect at least 50 thousand signatures from voters required by Article 71 of the Constitution for the presentation of a bill in Parliament. The bill is already ready in its structure, accompanied by a presentation document with which the promoters try to motivate the return to the electric atom with a series of motivations: the inevitability of dealing with the climate catastrophe (just in these days the 2024 edition of the report of the Milan Polytechnic "Zero Carbon Policy agenda" denounces the need to double the speed of reduction of CO2 to respect the programs outlined), the growing demand for energy driven for example by the hoped-for growth of electric mobility, the economic convenience (the 60-year projections provided by Calenda indicate that a correct renewable-nuclear mix will halve energy costs compared to the growth of renewables alone) and in any case the political feasibility of resorting to a law that can gather a broad consensus (the Italian population is mostly in favor of the use of nuclear energy with the necessary guarantees, they venture).
Nuclear: the contents of the popular bill
In the text deposited at the Ministry of Justice for the collection of signatures (which can also be formalised via the web) a rapid regulatory reorganization is proposed according to a premise and three criteria. The premise: the use of nuclear energy is precisely “more sustainable and less expensive than a solution that uses only renewable sources”, which therefore should not be seen as an alternative to be replaced but rather to be used in synergy. The first criterion: the construction of new reactors must take place with “the most advanced commercially available technology” i.e. the current one, or “the third generation fission, which has the lowest CO2 emissions and the highest safety standards”, without waiting but equipping ourselves now to use “those currently under development when their availability is assured”.
The second criterion: to facilitate the operation, a rapid regulatory reorganization is proposed through legislative decrees to be adopted within six months of the entry into force of the new law to "define the criteria for authorization, construction, operation and remuneration of nuclear power and for the definition of local benefit measures in favor of the populations involved".
Here the promoters of the referendum do not ignore the two elements that apparently seem to contradict the assertions of the absolute economic feasibility of the operation and the presumed acceptability of the populations. The economic convenience discounts however - the promoters underline - the need for massive initial investments to be sustained, which would in any case be rapidly reabsorbed in the following years guaranteeing an absolutely advantageous return also thanks to the very long useful life estimated for the new plants. Life that the neo-nuclearists maintain is much longer than that of renewable energy plants (the best solar panels have a useful life that does not reach twenty years).
As for acceptability for the populations, the promoters of the referendum propose that before starting with the executive projects, an independent Authority for nuclear safety should be established and begin to operate, along the lines of the current regulatory authorities, which will act as guarantor of the processes, safety, standardization and application of the rules. Rules that in any case should be accompanied - proposes the committee for the return to nuclear power - by the "rapid" scheme of the single authorization, in the name of an activity that must be considered "of pre-eminent state interest".
