( By Lakshmi Pendyala ) [Approx. Read Time: 2 minutes]
Per a new bill approved by Italian parliament on July 9th, the country is going to reopen its doors for nuclear energy. In the next six months, candidate sites for new nuclear reactors will be selected and the country will break ground for its first new nuclear reactor in 2013.
Italy’s Energy Minister Claudio Scajola announced that the plant is expected to enter revenue service five years later.
”We have had signals of availability at a local level from various bodies to welcome nuclear plants. Nuclear energy was spoken of in negative terms after Chernobyl, but the country can’t be influenced by fear ” Scajola said at a press conference Thursday.
Italy which was among the pioneers of nuclear energy in 1950s had abandoned its nuclear energy program following the nuclear power referendum in 1987. High costs of electricity which relies on fossil fuels and imports have prompted its return to nuclear power.
”This is a turning point, a courageous choice,” said Senate Whip Maurizio Gasparri of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party.
”It’s a law against a policy that has paralysed Italy and made us dependent on the import of gas and oil with enormous energy bill costs,” he added.
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In the US, we don’t have to import most of our coal. Imagine if we did… What happens when China is willing to pay more for our coal than we are? Is coal export regulated?