MILAN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Italy, which rejected nuclear power 20 years ago, may see a nuclear plant up and running in 2017, the country's biggest utility, Enel, said on Friday.
Italy banned nuclear power after holding a referendum on the issue in 1987, following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. But the nuclear-friendly government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has pledged to lift the ban and create conditions for a nuclear energy relaunch by 2012.
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and Italy agreed on Wednesday to work together to develop nuclear energy to ease their reliance on expensive oil and gas.
"I'm pleased to announce our two countries will work together in the area of nuclear energy," Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The Russian state company on nuclear energy Rosatom this week signed an agreement with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development over the construction of a vessel for transports of spent nuclear fuel from bases on the Kola Peninsula.
According to Rosatom, the vessel will be financed as a whole by the Italian side. The ship, which is to be built by the company Fincantieri is expected to cost 71,5 million EUR.
Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday appealed for the prime minister to shed light on a media report in which it was claimed that Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is considering Malta as a suitable spot for a nuclear power plant.
AD’s spokesman for sustainable development Carmel Cacopardo said the report featured in the Italian newspaper Il-Sole 24 Ore and mentioned Malta, Albania and Montenegro as possible sites for power plants. The report was compiled after a statement released in relation to Dr Gonzi and Mr Berlusconi’s meeting last week.
WASHINGTON -- Bulgaria has sent its remaining highly enriched uranium to Russia for safeguarding from terrorist or other potential misuse.
Nearly 14 pounds of the spent fuel were received Thursday at a Russian nuclear facility, the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration announced. A first shipment of 37.3 pounds of fresh uranium fuel was sent to Russia in December 2003.
Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said the Group of Eight industrial nations favour the construction of more nuclear power plants to lessen dependence on fossil fuels blamed for global warming.
G8 leaders yesterday noted that "a growing number of countries" regard nuclear power as an "essential instrument" for cutting greenhouse gas pollution.
MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Italy's minister for economic development Claudio Scajola said the government will be setting up a nuclear safety body as part of its policy for reintroducing nuclear power generation.
In a parliamentary hearing, Scajola said the body will be 'strong and authoritative' and will seek to ensure that, as regards nuclear reintroduction, the best technologies are used, the various checks and balances are reliable and the industrial processes are the right ones.
America's landfills for low-level nuclear waste should be conserved for America's waste, according to a new, bipartisan bill to be introduced next week in the U.S. Senate.
The bill targets efforts by Salt Lake City-based EnergySolutions to use its Tooele County landfill for contaminated cleanup waste from Italy's defunct nuclear reactors and maybe other foreign waste in the future. And it echoes a bill proposed in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and two colleagues.
The Italian government, whose public debt of €1.624 trillion is already the world's third largest, seems eager to dig deeper. Last week, recently re-elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made good on his campaign pledge to recommit Italy to nuclear power. This seemed just the thing to address the country's rising oil and gas prices and growing French electricity imports -- except for one thing: Mr. Berlusconi's promised nuclear power plants are unlikely to ever be built.
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy should keep its ban on nuclear power and should boost solar and wind energy instead to resolve its energy supply problems, Italian environmentalists said on Thursday as nuclear revival debate heated up.
Italy banned nuclear power in a 1987 referendum after the Chernobyl disaster. But calls for a nuclear renaissance have intensified this month under the new government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as oil prices stormed record highs.
