The first partnership was signed between companies in Italy for the design and possibly the creation of Small Modular Reactorsmall third generation nuclear reactors. To participate will be Enel, who will have the majority in the new company, Ansaldo Energia And Leonardo. This is the first concrete step for the return of nuclear power to Italy.
However, it is a path with very long time horizons. Before 2030, there is also a precise regulatory framework for the production of fission electricity nuclear in Italy. The goal is also very modest: in more than two decades it will not be produced more than 11% of the Italian energy demand through reactors.
The new partnership for nuclear power in Italy
With the formation of the new partnership between Enel, Ansaldo Energia and LeonardoItaly takes its first concrete step towards the start of a nuclear project for the production of electricity. The three companies, all participated by the state, will divide a new company. Enel will have 51% of the shares and the right to express the CEO. Ansaldo Energia, among the few Italian companies active in the construction of nuclear reactors, even if abroad, will have 39%, while the remaining 10% will go to Leonardo.
The actual construction of a reactor is still far away. At the moment the company will focus on the study of the feasibility of the project. The chosen technology is that of Third generation SMR with water, Although the possibility of developing a fourth generation advanced modular reactor will be monitored. To move on to the operational phase, the Corriere della Serawhich reported the news, it will be necessary to wait for the government to develop a suitable regulatory framework.
The production of energy from nuclear reactors and the construction of the infrastructures themselves is in fact blocked in Italy by two different Popular referendums. Both were approved following accidents abroad, those of Chernobyl and Fukushima. However, the government is convinced that it can overcome this regulatory block, but the timing will not be short.
The times for nuclear power are very long
With the Budget Law of 2025, the government also approved a delegation to reform the regulatory framework of nuclear power in Italy. Even if the bureaucratic procedures took place without problems, however, the executive itself admitted that the new legislation could not allow the production of energy from a reactor before 2030.
Government projects also show how long the timing with which nuclear power should become part of the Italian energy mix are. The goal would be to delegate to atomic plants 10% -11% of demand coverage national electricity. Even the most optimistic estimates, however, have set the date of achieving this objective, however modest, al 2050.
On this aspect weighs the delay accumulated by our country in almost 40 years of interruption Of the production of energy from nuclear power plants, followed in the 1987 referendum. In Italy there is not only structures, but partly also the skills to be able to accelerate the process of building nuclear reactors.
