MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s government will present a state-backed company that will build advanced nuclear reactors in the country before the end of the year, the industry minister said on Monday.
“By the end of the year, we will present an industrial entity that is capable of building next-generation nuclear reactors in our country and perhaps export,” Minister Adolfo Urso told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Milan.
The right-wing administration headed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thinks small modular reactors and advanced modular reactors could help decarbonise the country’s most polluting sectors, including steel, glass and tilemakers.
Nuclear-fired power plants are prohibited in Italy following referendums in 1987 and 2011 but the government plans to draft rules to allow the use of new nuclear-power technologies and lift the ban.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, writing by Giulia Segreti, editing by Cristina Carlevaro)
