ROME — Nuclear power is officially back on Italy’s energy agenda. The Senate has given final approval to a framework law allowing the government to rebuild the country’s nuclear-energy system, nearly four decades after Italians voted to phase it out.
Why it matters: Italy is not planning a return to the large nuclear plants of the past. The government is betting instead on a new generation of smaller, modular reactors as part of a broader effort to strengthen energy security, reduce dependence on imports and complement renewables.
- Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin called the vote “a historic day,” saying the first plants could become operational between 2033 and 2034.
The big picture: The legislation gives the government one year to adopt one or more decrees establishing the rules for producing and using nuclear energy, including the construction and operation of new plants.
- The framework will also cover decommissioning, radioactive-waste management, nuclear-fusion research and the localisation of plants and storage facilities.
- An independent nuclear-safety authority could also be established, strengthening technical expertise currently held by Italy’s National Inspectorate for Nuclear Safety.
Zoom in: The technological bet is central to the government’s strategy.
- Italy is looking particularly at Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) — reactors of roughly 300 megawatts that can be built in series and assembled on site — alongside Advanced Modular Reactors (AMRs), fourth-generation systems expected to use innovative fuels and offer further advances in safety and waste management.
- Pichetto expects the first plants to enter operation in 2033-34.
What’s next: The parliamentary vote does not authorise the construction of a specific reactor or identify where future plants will be built.
- The government now has 12 months to adopt the implementing decrees, although Pichetto aims to have them ready by the end of this year. Technical assessments of potential locations will come later and will have to take account of nuclear safety, seismic risk, hydrogeological conditions, infrastructure availability and the characteristics of surrounding areas.
- Local consultation will also be part of the process.
The political picture: The legislation passed the Senate with 81 votes in favour, 51 against and three abstentions, after receiving approval from the lower house in June.
- Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s governing coalition backed the measure, while the opposition voted against it. Italia Viva abstained.
- The return to nuclear energy nevertheless remains politically sensitive in a country where voters rejected it in referendums held in 1987 and 2011.
Between the lines: The government argues that the energy landscape — and nuclear technology itself — has changed substantially since those votes.
- Its strategy is not to replace renewables, but to use new nuclear capacity alongside them to provide more stable domestic generation and reinforce energy security.
- Industry is broadly supportive. Confindustria has welcomed the move, while business representatives argue that nuclear power could provide a fundamental lever for achieving Italy’s climate-neutrality targets.
The bottom line: Italy is still years away from producing nuclear electricity again. But the Senate vote marks a significant shift: the debate has moved from whether nuclear power can return to Italy to how, where and under which rules it could do so.
- If the government’s timetable holds, the first reactors of Italy’s new nuclear era could be operating early in the next decade.
