MILAN (Reuters) – Italian power group Enel, defence company Leonardo and Ansaldo Energia have set up a company to study new-generation nuclear technologies, they said on Wednesday.
Enel will hold a 51% stake in the company named Nuclitalia, with Ansaldo Energia owning 39% and Leonardo 10%.
“Nuclitalia will be in charge of assessing the most innovative and mature designs of new sustainable nuclear power, with an initial focus on water-cooled small modular reactors,” the three partners said in a joint statement.
Italy’s Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said nuclear power was needed, along with renewable sources, and could reduce energy costs in the country.
The Italian government approved in February a law that will allow a return to nuclear energy almost 40 years after it was banned by referendum. Analysts say, however, it could take more than a decade to bring back atomic energy.
The former head of Milan’s technical university Politecnico Ferruccio Resta will be the chairman of Nuclitalia and Enel’s Luca Mastrantonio, who is the utility’s head of nuclear innovation, will serve as chief executive.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Gavin Jones and Barbara Lewis)
