GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL REGIONS' NUCLEAR REACTOR BANS +RPT+
GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL REGIONS' NUCLEAR REACTOR BANS +RPT+
(ANSA) - Rome, February 4 - The Italian government said Thursday it would take three regions to the Constitutional Court over their norms blocking the construction of nuclear reactors in the face of a new law reviving nuclear power in Italy.
Industry Ministry Claudio Scajola argued the laws in the southern Campania, Puglia and Basilicata regions, ''infringe on the central government's jurisdiction over energy and environmental protection policy''.
''If we leave these measures unchallenged, they could set a dangerous precedent undermining the government's authority,'' he said.
All three of the policies were adopted after the parliament gave it's green light to a return to nuclear power last summer.
Italy abandoned its programme in 1986 after the Chernobyl meltdown in the Ukraine sent a radioactive plume drifting over much of Europe.
The regions which adopted the anti-nuclear measures are all governed by center-left opposition parties and among 15 of the 20 regions in Italy that appealed the new energy plan last fall on the basis that it unjustly overturned the popular referendum banning nuclear power in Italy.
But Scajola said reviving the program was ''indispensable to guarantee a safe, renewable power supply that will cut energy costs for families and businesses, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions''.
He added that next week the government would rubber-stamp the sites approved for the new reactors, four of which are in the regions that forbid their construction.
But Puglia governor Nicchi Vendola promised to keep fighting the plants and "disobeying" the government's attempt to "nuclearize" the region.
Additional criticism arose from the opposition's ranks in parliament.
The Senate whip for the Italy of Values party, Felice Belsario, slammed the appeal as a ''dictatorial affront'' to regional autonomy in "brazen" contrast to the center right's decentralization platform.
"The government talks a lot about empowering local administrators, but when push comes to shove, it thinks it can toss aside the decisions they make".
According to the Italian power utility, ENEL, the first of the new power plants will be up and running by 2020 with construction slated to begin by 2013.
Italy and France struck an accord last February to cooperate in the production of nuclear energy using the advanced third-generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology developed by EdF.
In September, Italy and the United States signed a five-year agreement for the development of 12 new-generation nuclear power plants in Italy and there is an option to extend the accord another five years.
According to ENEL, 40% of Italians are in favour of building nuclear power plants, but the percentage falls to 17% if the plant is built near where one lives.
