Italy is finally going nuclear; or is it?
Despite two referendums rejecting nuclear power in 1987 and 2011, the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni put forward a provisional bill in March to introduce small modular nuclear reactors. And last week it said Italy planned to join Europe’s alliance of pro-nuclear countries as a full member (see here).
The moves, which mark a significant break from the country's long-held aversion to nuclear energy, have been fueled by an EU-wide drive to strengthen the bloc's energy security and reduce the reliance on imported gas from Russia in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. They also align with the National Energy and Climate Plans to reduce emissions in Italy, which relies heavily on natural gas for power generation.
Constitutional experts say the past referendums rejecting nuclear shouldn't block the government's ambitions.
“From a constitutional point of view, the result of a referendum is considered to have a maximum validity of five years, i.e., the term of a parliament,” said Justin Orlando Frosini, Professor of Comparative Public Law at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Constitutional scholars interpret this time limit as an extension of the legal principle “lex posterior derogat priori”, meaning a later law repeals an earlier one, as it more accurately reflects the latest views of citizens.
On that basis, Frosini said that if a government wins a majority in an election after a referendum, it also has the constitutional legitimacy to approve a new law that supersedes the result of the earlier plebiscite.
Alberto Nicòtina, postdoctoral researcher in European Law at the University of Amsterdam, said Italy's parliament had passed new laws in the past that superseded a referendum vote.
In 1993, amid a corruption scandal know as "Tangentopoli", Italians voted in a referendum to abolish public financing for political parties. But just four years later, the new parliament passed a law labelling party financing as “electoral reimbursement,” which effectively reversed the referendum result. A call for a new referendum to repeal the law in 2000 failed to reach the required threshold.
Nicòtina also pointed to a 2012 Italian Constitutional Court judgment which said, “for a new exercise of legislative power on the same subject to take place after a referendum, there must have been, following the repeal, a change in the political framework or in the factual circumstances”.
— Italians still oppose nuclear —
However, climate groups and others warn that the shifting geopolitics and energy security concerns may not be enough to convince the Italian public to embrace nuclear. They also question the significant time frame for nuclear projects and doubt the Italian government's assurances that they will result in cheaper electricity for consumers.
A survey by IPSOS in November 2024 showed that 81 percent of Italians were opposed to nuclear energy.
Frosini said a parliamentary committee could still be formed to gather the 500,000 signatures required to propose a referendum to repeal any nuclear-related legislation, adding that he thought a third referendum on nuclear would likely meet the quorum needed to be valid.
Environmental campaigners have questioned whether a nuclear bill could make it through the legislative process.
“Italy has never been able to decide on sites to store the nuclear waste it already produced, […] let alone deciding on new locations for nuclear projects,” said Davide Sabbadin, Deputy Policy Manager at the NGO European Environmental Bureau.
Some NGOs suspect the government's nuclear drive is really a pretext for continued investment in gas power at the cost of greener alternatives because the nuclear plants would take several years to come into operation.
"The government expects the first small modular reactor to be operational by 2031, but the technology is not there", says Katiuscia Eroe, Head of Energy at energy campaign group Legambiente.
Greenpeace Italy Director Giuseppe Onufrio noted that all recent global nuclear projects involved conventional reactors, not new technologies.
"In general, nuclear remains significantly more expensive than renewables and would therefore fail to lower energy bills," he said.
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