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.
Scajola said the government will create the conditions to allow private investors to invest in the industry.
He said the government's three-year plan already included measures on the permitting process, the siting of the power plants the compensation for local communities living in the vicinity of the plants built.
A recent study by A2A SpA think-tank Energy Lab said that currently 24 permits would be needed to open a nuclear power plant.
Nuclear power generation was stopped by a referendum in 1987 but a subsequent government moratorium on nuclear power expired in 1992.
At a conference on Tuesday the CEO of Finmeccanica SpA unit Ansaldo Nucleare Roberto Adinolfi said that from a strictly legal point of view there is nothing to stop a nuclear power plant being built.
(Source: Forbes)
1 comment:
A great thing about this generation of nuclear plants is the simplicity. Hopefully western governments will streamline and re-think over-regulation to take into account the new way.
For a country like Italy it is a simple question, a Westnighouse AP-1000 or an Areva EPR 1600, or the GE ABWR? And those reactors are already approved in other nations.
Some other questions like where best to place the new reactors are not things a central regulator needs to worry about. The regional utilities can figure that out. They know their grid way better than anyone else. And they can talk to local communities to see which ones are eager.
Honestly if I was a medium or smaller nation I would just benchmark my regulations to one of the big 3 oecd nuclear nations.. France, Japan and the USA.
--aa2
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