NEI Nuclear Notes

No sooner does Italy drop its ban on new nuclear plant development than someone starts developing them : The Italian energy company Enel has formed a joint venture with France's EdF to develop nuclear energy in Italy, the companies said in a joint statement Monday. The companies billed the move "as the first substantial step" toward establishing nuclear plants in Italy following the approval of an Italian law last month allowing a return to nuclear energy more than two decades after voters shut down the country's reactors. The new venture is called Italy Nuclear Development (Sviluppo Nucleare Italia). You can read Enel’s take on this development here . Interestingly, Enel is not completely new to this: EdF and Enel have been working together since 2007 on the construction of a third-generation reactor in Flamanville in Normandy, in which Enel owns a 12.5 percent stake. By a separate agreement Enel will take an identical-sized stake in the second EPR...

From Bloomberg : Italy should restart nuclear power generation and European nations must improve cooperation on natural-resource policy to best deal with growing energy demand, a report prepared for Enel SpA, Italy's largest power company. Energy security necessitates a review of its fuel mix including the ``reintroduction of nuclear power in Italy,'' as well as the ``development of renewable energy'' sources such as wind, according to the report prepared for Enel by The European House-Ambrosetti, a business consulting company with headquarters in Milan. The report was presented today at a conference in Cernobbio, Italy, that was attended by Enel Chief Executive Officer Fulvio Conti, and European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. Italian power prices are some of the most expensive in the 27-member European Union, partly because the country depends on expensive gas to run many of its power plants. Enel is also investing in coal, another fuel the report says must b...