Brussels, 21/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Italy, which on Tuesday 19 April halted its programme to return to nuclear power, is not ruling out the possibility of using atomic power in the future, but Rome will not re-examine the dossier until the EU has taken a joint decision, the minister for economic development, Paolo Romani, stated on Tuesday 19 April. Nuclear will not return to the agenda until “the situation with the Fukushima accident is definitively clear (...) and all of Europe has taken joint and shared decisions between all of them” on using atomic power for energy production, Romani told an interview with the daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore (our translation throughout). “Fukushima has shown us that major accidents can happen. I am very reluctant to admit this, as I remain determinedly pro-nuclear, but I am very well aware that culturally, nuclear is not well-tolerated at the moment… If nuclear is rescheduled, it will be in the framework of a national energy strategy”, said the Italian minister.
Silvio Berlusconi's government may justify halting its plans to return to nuclear due to increased opposition to atomic power among the general public in Italy since the recent accident at Fukushima Daiichi power station in Japan on 11 March, suggesting that any return to nuclear, which Italy moved away from for the first time in 1987, will depend on a decision taken at EU level, would seem improbable given that the composition of the energy mix, and therefore the decision on whether or not to use nuclear, is a sovereign choice in the hands of each of the member states. According to the Italian opposition, it is a way for the Berlusconi government to avoid holding a referendum on nuclear on 12 and 13 June, before making further proposals to build power stations in a year's time. (E.H./transl.fl)