Skip to main content

Italy Nuclear Update

By Eric McErlain
Why is Italy thinking twice about the decision the nation made back in 1987 about the future use of nuclear energy?
One of the main effects of the anti-nuclear stance is that Italy depends heavily on oil and natural gas bought in other countries, with total energy imports estimated at about 15% of its total requirements.

According to a 2005 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), Italy is in fact the worldÂ’s largest energy importer ahead of Germany, Brazil and the US.
This, in turn means Italians pay the highest electricity bills in Europe – 14.6 euro cents per kilowatt/hour compared to a European average of 10 cents and just 5.6 cents in Greece.
Technorati tags: , , , , , , , ,

Comments

Anonymous said…
In fact, Italy gets the bulk of its electricity from all the surplus nuclear power generated in France, hence the reason for the most expensive electricity.

We are closely following the Berlesconi effort to site a nuclear waste dump in Scanzano for all of Italy's nuclear waste from its nuclear industry retired by the Chernobyl accident plus the fuel rods from the Elk River nuclear power station which somehow wound up in Italy. More than 200,000 southern Italians mobilized and occupied the propose site within two weeks of its announcement and squelched the dump effort.
February 13, 2006 at 8:41 AM
David Bradish said…
Paul,

In fact, Italy does NOT get the bulk of its electricity from France. It actually gets it from Switzerland, 50% to be exact. France only contributes 35% to Italy. 43% of the electricity in Switzerland comes from nuclear.

Here are the electric retail prices for households in some European countries:

Italy - .17 euros / kWh
France - .11 euros / kWh
Switzerland - .11 euros / kWh
Germany - .16 euros / kWh
Greece - .09 euros / kWh
UK - .08 euros / kWh

Before you assume that electricity prices are high in Italy because of nuclear, you need to check what the other costs of electricity were in the countries supplying the electricity.

If France and Switzerland's electricity costs were as high as Italy's, your claim would be correct but that's not the case.

All my stats are from IEA's Electricity Information book.

David
February 13, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Anonymous said…
The reason power is expenisve in Italy is not due to them importing nuclear power from France, since power would then also be expensive in France, which it isn't.

Italy gets a very large part of it's power from pricy oil and natural gas. http://www.iea.org/Textbase/stats/PDF_graphs/ITELEC.pdf

Without the Swiss and French imports prices would be even higher.
February 13, 2006 at 11:54 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...
23 comments
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more