Italy Seeks Partners to Develop Nuclear Reactors, Minister Says

By Alberto Brambilla

September 08, 2024 at 9:31AM EDT

The Sizewell B nuclear power station reactor dome, operated by Electricite de France SA (EDF), in Sizewell, UK, on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. The UK government will invest an additional £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant to try and entice private investors to back the project. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Italy is looking to build nuclear reactors by creating a new company in partnership with a foreign investor, the Ansa newswire reported, citing Industry Minister Adolfo Urso.

“We are working on an Italian Newco, with a foreign technological partnership, which will allow advanced, third-generation nuclear power to be produced shortly in Italy,” Urso said at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, on Lake Como, according to Ansa.

Urso didn’t named any of potential companies and partners.

The production and use of atomic energy on Italian soil would mark a shift: nuclear power was banned by popular votes in referendums in 1987 and again in 2011.

The government is also working on a legislative measure that aims to reintroduce the use of nuclear energy with the latest available technologies later this year, Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on Saturday.