“Italy is ready to re-enter nuclear power, which represents a crucial choice that will not replace renewables but complement them by ensuring us a balanced and sustainable energy mix. It is a move that we can no longer postpone and I have felt the responsibility to equip the country with the tools so that Italy does not waste the opportunity to play a leading role in a game that in the coming decades will be crucial for decarbonization and security of supply.” Thus, in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore, Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. Then, he explains that “the single text represents the overall systematization of the entire matter and will go in parallel with the definition of a national program aimed at the development of energy production from nuclear sources that will contribute to the strategy of achieving the 2050 carbon neutrality objectives. It is a phased pathway that I believe will come to fruition by the end of 2027. It will need to be well informed and have consensus in Parliament and in the country. And I am hopeful.” On the type of plants, “right now the debate is open and we want to ensure that we have a wide margin for action. So it will be up to the implementing decrees to detail the paths to be taken as the contours of ongoing experiments emerge,” the minister notes. As for the issue of costs, “it is possible that, at least in the initial push to market, incentives may be needed to support it. But all this does not dictate that these supports have to go into the bill.” For the identification of the places where the plants can be built, “it will be up to the implementing decrees to define the conditions for the identification of the sites, which, as the draft bill also states, can also be those that host old nuclear plants,” Pichetto adds. Finally on the minimum coverage in terms of energy production to 2050, the minister stresses that “in the Pniec we assume that we will get up to 22 percent of our energy mix. This is a forecast scenario that I confirm, also in light of the path that we are setting in motion with the enabling act and which also holds within it a hypothesis of contribution from nuclear fusion, whose timeframe for it to become a commercially viable alternative is longer than that of splitting.”
(ITALPRESS).
-Photo: Photogram Agency-
Pichetto “Italy is ready for nuclear power, crucial choice”
