Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Comments:

One Comment

  1. “Italy was a pioneer of civil nuclear power and in 1946 established the first scientific body to pursue this.

    “In 1966 Enel announced an ambitious program of nuclear plant construction, aiming for 12,000 MWe by 1980. Following this, ANSALDO was set up to supply nuclear components, both local and imported.

    “In 1967 CNEN and Enel started developing an Italian version of the Candu reactor, with heavy water moderation but light water cooling, called CIRENE. In 1972 an order was placed with ANSALDO to build a 40 MWe prototype, but this was not finished until 1988 due to technical problems.

    “In 1973 Enel took a 33% share of the Super Phenix fast breeder reactor being built in France.

    “Following a referendum in November 1987, provoked by the Chernobyl accident 18 months earlier, work on the nuclear program was largely stopped. In 1988 the government resolved to halt all nuclear construction, shut the remaining reactors and decommission them from 1990. As well as the operating plants, two new nuclear BWR plants were almost complete and six locally-designed PWR plants were planned. ENEA (formerly CNEN) also closed various fuel cycle facilities, including a fuel fabrication plant at Bosco Marengo.

    “Italy’s phase out of nuclear energy following the 1987 referendum has had major costs to the whole economy. The Minister of Economic Development in October 2008 put the figure for this “terrible mistake” at some EUR 50 billion.

    “Italy today is now the only G8 country without its own nuclear power, and is the world’s largest net importer of electricity.

    “A public opinion poll in July 2008 (N=800) found that 54% supported nuclear power in Italy while 36% opposed it (compared with 82% opposition in 2007).”

    From http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf101.html

Recent Comments from our Readers

  1. Avatar
  2. Avatar
  3. Avatar
  4. Avatar
  5. Avatar

Similar Posts