Italy Just Became The Latest Country To Abandon Nuclear Power

[kristopher]

Source: Business Insider

Italian voters turned out to reject nuclear energy in a referendum today. With 83% of the vote counted, it has been projected that the country will join Germany and abandon plans for nuclear energy, Reuters reports.

Italy abandoned nuclear power in 1987 after the Chernobyl meltdown. The continuing disaster at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan is renewing the fears of Italian environmentalists.

... The vote was widely seen as a poll on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was a strong proponent of nuclear energy.

"Following the decision the Italian people are taking at this moment, we must probably say goodbye to the possibility of nuclear power stations and we must strongly commit ourselves to renewable energy," Berlusconi said...

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-nuclear-power-2011-6

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Berlusconi has been pushing for 25% of Italy's generation to come from nuclear power and 25% from renewables. This is a positive economic move by Italy as the focus on renewables means clear, unambiguous policies to promote renewables will be put into place. There is no more effective policy move to speed adoption than that type of regulatory certainty.