MILAN (Reuters) -Defence company Leonardo, utility Enel and power generation supplier Ansaldo Energia have reached a deal to create a new company to study the use of nuclear power, Italy’s Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on Thursday.
Addressing a conference in Milan, Pichetto said Enel would contribute with its expertise in managing nuclear power stations in Spain, while Leonardo could explore the use of nuclear energy in the military sector.
“During its first phase, the new company will focus on a feasibility study to choose the best technology for nuclear energy,” Luca Mastrantonio, Enel’s head of nuclear innovation, said.
Italy’s conservative government earlier this year approved a law paving the way to a return to nuclear energy, which was banned by referendum in 1987.
“The regulatory framework will likely be completed in two and a half years from now,” Pichetto said at the conference, where he spoke via videolink.
Italy’s government has said small modular reactors would be the best solution for a return to nuclear power generation, but critics say they would take more than 10 years to be ready.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini.Editing by Alvise Armellini and Mark Potter)
