Nuclear Energy in Italy: work, environment, development

According to Fulvio Conti, CEO of Enel, “this project will significantly help revitalize the national economy, and benefit consumers.”
“There is an awareness of the importance of pulling all the levers to launch the project, a country project that will significantly help revitalize the national economy and benefit consumers.” This is how Enel’s CEO and General Manager Fulvio Conti commented on the research compiled by The European House-Ambrosetti on nuclear revival in Italy and presented at Cernobbio on September 5th, on the last day of the annual Forum at Villa d’Este.
In short, the research showed that the economic, occupational and environmental benefits would concern the whole country. The study identifies a number of scenarios suitable to understand how Italy will be influenced by the construction and operations of new nuclear plants, as prescribed by the Development Law of 2009.
The environmental benefits that were identified by the research regard the reduction of 236 to 381 million tons of CO2 emissions over ten years. The economic advantages produced by the new plants, which are expected to meet 25% of Italy’s electricity demand, include saving between 43 and 69 billion euros for overall generation costs (therefore including those for carbon dioxide emissions) for the period between 2020 and 2030.
Furthermore, according to the research, nuclear revival can also be “a launch pad” for the national industry, while also boosting employment: 9,000 jobs for each nuclear plant during its construction, between 1,100 and 1,300 when it operates and, finally, 150 during the decommissioning phase of each power station.
The study compiled by The European House-Ambrosetti, also underlines how the new technologies that would be used to build the new plants offer guarantees as regards safety. Moreover, it mentions significant data concerning plant waste management, In Italy, over 60 years of nuclear power generation, 38 million cubic metres of low and medium-level waste and 4,200 cubic metres of high-level waste would be produced. The latter would account for 0.000003% of the total of dangerous special waste that is produced each year in Italy.
This nuclear revival would also allow the country to lower its dependency on foreign countries to satisfy its primary energy demand (currently Italy imports around 86% of the energy it consumes). The research presented at Cernobbio underlines that if the plants foreseen by the national Italian nuclear plan should become operational, decreased electricity costs for Italy private users and businesses would reduce the present negative gap of Italy, which exceeds by 25-35% the average costs within the EU.