Nuclear, France wants to create a European alliance

Nuclear

“ No Italian representative is expected to be present tomorrow in Stockholm at meetings that will have nuclear issues as their object ”. The clarification came on the evening of February 27 directly from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, after various sources, including the Reuters agency, had also cited Italy among the countries ready to accept the minister's invitation French for energy transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher on the sidelines of the informal European Council of ministers of energy, transport and telecommunications.

The exponent of Renaissance , the party of President Emmanuel Macron , had convened a summit a few hours earlier with “all the countries that have a place in European nuclear power, which will be one of the tools together with renewables to achieve our carbon neutrality goals”, after meeting his European counterparts right in the Swedish capital. Besides Italy and France, the other countries included in the list of participants were Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Croatia, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Finland.

The new dawn of 'nuclear energy The ecological transition and the gas crisis have rekindled interest in the atom. Investments go into modular plants, new types of reactors, high-enriched fuel. The race is not only industrial, but also geopolitical

The goal

“ The goal - Pannier-Runacher affirmed - is to create the nuclear alliance and to launch a strong signal in the various European negotiations ". Nuclear energy is one of the investments that the European Commission compatible with the ecological and energy transitions and the positions against this eventuality are known, among others, of Austria, Germany and Spain.

France, which satisfies a large part of its energy needs with nuclear power plants, is instead pushing in the opposite direction. “Renewables and nuclear power - declared the minister in Stockholm - are the pillars on which to build our energy transition, we need both and countries must be able to decide their own energy mix ”.

Paris' intention is that of discussing " professional skills, safety, supplies, waste management " and to do so also with Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson . It is no coincidence, in this regard, that she too is among the guests invited to the summit.

The parties in favor and those against the return of nuclear power in Italy The climate crisis and stellar energy prices put the the center of the debate is the atom: right and third pole in favour, left and Movimento 5 Stelle no. But experts urge definitive choices and attention to costs. While Italy still has to deal with its waste

Italy's position

Even if it will not take part in the summit convened by the French minister, it is not excluded that Italy may open up to the nuclear hypothesis in the future. Last October, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin affirmed that he was in favor of "experimenting with new generation nuclear power to face the energy crisis".

A position reaffirmed precisely in Stockholm, a few hours after Pannier-Runacher's invitation from the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini: "Investing in the latest generation of clean and safe nuclear power - he said - is a social, economic and environmental duty. Next future ”.