Insight Web Extra
November 2009—Italian nuclear power, once a pioneering and proud industry, is set on a path to restore itself as a part of the country’s energy mix.
The industry has been moribund since a national referendum shut down the country’s nuclear reactors in the early 1990s. Now the government is moving rapidly toward a goal of building enough new nuclear power plants to provide 25 percent of the country’s electricity by 2030.
Since the beginning of the year, the government has signed bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with Russia, Germany, France and Japan and, now, the United States.
Last month the U.S. and Italy signed a
Joint Declaration of Nuclear Cooperation, which paves the way for U.S. companies to participate in the Italian nuclear power renaissance. The two countries also signed an
Agreement on Cooperation in Civilian Nuclear Energy Research and Development to facilitate collaborative R&D on advanced nuclear energy systems and fuel cycle technologies. U.S. nuclear vendors General Electric and Westinghouse have both welcomed the agreements.
Kicking off the new spirit of cooperation, Italian Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola paid a visit to FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pa. Among the hosts were representatives from Westinghouse. Accompanying Scajola were members of his staff and members of the Italian news media.
Ray Lieb, director of site operations at Beaver Valley, provided his guests with an overview of FirstEnergy’s operations and led a site tour of Beaver Valley. “We welcome this opportunity to showcase nuclear technology and Beaver Valley to our international guests,” said Lieb. “Our site has a 50-plus-year track record of producing safe, reliable and cost-effective nuclear power.” Beaver Valley has just received a 20-year operating license extension from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Italy was once a pioneer of the civilian nuclear power industry. However, after a 1987 national referendum almost two years after Chernobyl, the country’s nuclear reactors and fuel cycle facilities were shut down. Italy became the only G-8 country without nuclear power and the only one of five European countries with “nuclear phase-out” plans to actually carry them out.
As a result, more than 80 percent of Italy’s electricity consumption now comes from fossil fuels, including 12 percent from oil. Italy also needs to import almost 15 percent of its electricity from other countries, making it the world’s largest net importer of electricity. These factors account for Italy’s electricity prices being by far the highest in Europe.
Scajola has said that Italy made a “terrible mistake” in phasing out the country’s nuclear power, one which cost the country “over 50 billion euros (about $68 billion), if you count direct and indirect costs.”
Caption: Westinghouse Senior Vice President Dan Lipman (left), who also served as translator, points out features of the Beaver Valley reactor control room to Italian Minister of Economic Development Claudio Scajola (center). Beaver Valley’s director of performance improvement Roy Brosi is to Scajola’s left.
—Read more articles in Nuclear Energy Insight and Insight Web Extra.