The only country in Europe that ACTUALLY phased out nuclear power plans new reactors.

[NNadir]

Of all the big talk about nuclear phase outs in Europe, there's only ONE country that actually went through with it: Italy.

Like all "by year such and such" all of this talk has otherwise been a naked attempt to dump responsibility on future generations by consumers of a present generation.

Well then...

In May 2008 the new Italian government confirmed that it will commence building new nuclear power plants within five years, to reduce the county's great dependence on oil, gas and imported power. It will work towards having 25% of its electricity from nuclear power by 2030, which will require 8 to 10 large new reactors by then. The government introduced a package of nuclear legislation, including measures to set up a national nuclear research and development entity, to expedite licensing of new reactors at existing nuclear power plant sites, and to facilitate licensing of new reactor sites. Enel plans to build new reactors at one or more of three licensed sites: Garigliano, Latina, or Montalto di Castro. The first two had small early-model reactors operating to 1982 and 1987. At Montalto di Castro two larger reactors were almost complete when the country's November 1987 referendum halted construction.

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. He said the government was "relaunching" nuclear energy, beginning with legislation to create the needed infrastructure and empower the government to propose incentives to communities which accept nuclear plants. Italy will expedite this renaissance by adopting an already-licensed reactor design, and will involve Italian industry as much as possible. The minister pointed out that electricity prices in Italy are 30% higher than the EU average and 60% higher than in France.

Terrible mistake indeed.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf101.html">Status of Nuclear Power in Italy.

The chance for the "renewables will save us" squad to shit or get off the pot had a sterling opportunity to prove that their schemes could replace nuclear energy. The number of "renewables will save us" types who give a rat's ass about phasing out dangerous fossil fuels, which kill in vast numbers continuously with and without accidents, is zero.

[Statistical]

1. In related news: Italian Legislature aproves siting guidelines for potential future reactor.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP_Siting_guidelines_for_Italy_1003102.html

The latest legislative move to enable new nuclear development came with the publication of the siting guidelines yesterday afternoon on the Gazzetta Ufficiale, the official Italian Journal of Law.

During the International Conference on Access to Civil Nuclear Energy hosted in Paris this week the Italian minister for economic development, Claudio Scajola, anticipated the publication of the law and pointed out a strengthening of the collaboration between France and Italy.

....

Asked whether Italy should start to get back to nuclear energy, Conti replied, "I can't see why Italy, which is already importing energy produced in nuclear power plants, can't enter into this market, realizing plants with the same technological level and safety guarantees."

It does seem kinda silly to be anti nuclear power at the same time import massive amounts of electrical power from France produced by ..... (drumroll) nuclear power.

To those that don't know siting guidelines are environmental, safety, and land requirements for potential nuclear sites. It allows entities to begin looking for locations that meet requirements. Next step would be formal application process.

[NNadir]

5. ENEL spent a lot of time and money trying to build reactors in other people's countries.

One of the ironies of all of this is that Italy was a pioneer in geothermal energy, and the first geothermal power plant was built at Lardello in 1904.

http://www.earthwormtunneling.com/geo_history.html

People like to act as if this were a new idea, but it's not. The situation there should tell us something about whether geothermal is really as magical as some would like to represent.

I happen to think that geothermal energy is not as ridiculous or as toxic as the other major forms of so called "renewable" energy, and I can't think of a single geothermal plant I oppose, although I used to say the same thing about wind plants, and now I pretty much oppose all wind plants.

Geothermal does release a certain amount of carbon dioxide, but one could argue and perhaps have a point, that the carbon dioxide would have vented anyway. The figures I have seen in the literature for geothermal carbon dioxide loading is somewhere between 100 - 200 grams/kwh, not as clean as nuclear, but nowhere near gas, running at about 500 grams/kwh.

I do think that Italy can use more geothermal power, but I also think that the nuclear phase out was a very dumb idea, incredibly stupid, like all anti-nuke posturing.

The fact is that Italy, like all "nuclear phaseout nations" is totally beholden to the gas industry and to imported electricity.

The near collapse of the Po River a few years back, the decline of Alpine glaciers and similar events raise the stakes.

Italy is the home country of Enrico Fermi, the man who built the first nuclear reactor, and it is a disgrace that nuclear science infrastructure was destroyed there by ignorance, just as it is a disgrace that the ignorant continue to attempt to destroy and vandalize it elsewhere by appeals to mysticism and fear.

I hope that Italy will follow through on rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure, intellectual and physical, just as it was the only nation to follow through in a practical sense on the destruction in the first place.

[Name removed]

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[AlecBGreen]

3. sources of electricity (2008)

source: OECD/IEA

[joshcryer]

4. God natural gas is poised to take over the fucking world.

[NNadir]

6. Not really. The faster its burned, the faster it will run out.

It's not really magic.

After Hurricane Katrina, the gas magic was exposed for what it is.

With and without Katrina's the situation will be obviated, even with fracking and its swell effects on ground water and other important subsurface structures.

[hunter]

7. With natural gas we are building a big brick wall to crash into.

I'd like to jump out the window, but we're already moving too fast.

We've got to get Dr. Lizardo out of the driver's seat. Where's Buckaroo Banzai???

[joshcryer]

8. Yep, it's insane.

[Confusious]

9. The United States could get ALL it's power from solar!

Of course, that's just RIGHT NOW. 100 mile by 100 mile square. If we want to replace oil, that's 10x more energy.

1000x miles square. Cover up the south, and you got a deal.