Experts at Ernst & Young predict a value added generation of 45 billion euros
It has been talked about for a long time, but perhaps never before, in such a clear way as the Minister of Made in Italy did. Adolfo Urso at the Cernobbio Forum yesterday. The topic of nuclear energy still divides our country, after a referendum in 1987 decreed the beginning of the end of nuclear development in Italy. Since then, Italy has renounced, unlike many other European countries, this form of energy, which has consequently led to excessive dependence on foreign countries for energy supplies. «Italy is the only country that still does not produce nuclear energy», Urso recalled, during the Teha Forum in Cernobbio, which ended on Sunday 8 September. «By the end of this year – he added – we will present a regulatory framework and we are working on an Italian Newco, with a foreign technological partnership, which will allow us to produce advanced third-generation nuclear power in Italy shortly. Produce the reactors in Italy to then install them where they are required in the world and certainly also in Italy».
Urso therefore used the Cernobbio audience to talk about energy and anticipate the executive’s project. And this is certainly news that certainly needs to be explored further. But the minister went even further, stating, and it is difficult not to agree with him on this, that the European Green Deal has essentially failed, and that on September 25 the government will make proposals to Brussels on the subject. Because excluding a priori for reasons that are more than anything ideological and specious, with the giant steps taken in terms of safety and sustainability, is certainly the wrong approach. According to a study published by EY “Nuclear energy is on the verge of a renaissance”, Nuclear energy plays a key role in the transition from fossil fuels to energy sources that can ensure energy security and combat climate change.. Nuclear energy, in fact, thanks to its immediate response capacity and significant growth potential, is a key element in establishing low-emission electricity systems capable of addressing the climate crisis. In the ambitious global goal of reaching a net-zero balance by mid-century, nuclear energy, currently present in 32 countries with a total capacity of 413 GW, plays a significant role in avoiding 1.5 gigatonnes (Gt) of global emissions and reducing global gas demand by 180 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually.
In the specific Italian context, the experts of Ernst & Youngpredict a generation of added value of 45 billion euros, accompanied by a saving of 400 billion compared to a scenario based only on renewable sources and conventional power plants. In terms of employment, the creation of over half a million jobs nationwide is expected by 2050, as well as the creation of 52 thousand new full-time jobs in the short term, exclusively related to the construction phase. But even the sentiment of Italians seems to have changed compared to the referendums of 1987 and the subsequent ones in 2011 that definitively closed the door to the development of nuclear power; today, 64% of Italians would be in favor of third and fourth generation nuclear power.
It’s a controversial topic, buoyed by a recent policy shift aimed at “reversing decades of underinvestment” and betting big on nuclear. The UK’s latest energy security plan says it wants new nuclear projects, with the aim of up to 25% of the UK’s electricity coming from nuclear sources by 2050 – compared to 15% today. In addition, the first job for the new Great British Nuclear will be to launch a competition to select the best small modular reactor technologies to develop; smaller nuclear power plants based on the latest technology by the autumn. But even in the rest of Europe, nuclear energy has long been discussed as a possible energy source to exploit, to cope with the increase in energy prices determined by the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, and to find clean alternative sources compared to polluting fossil fuels. So the proposal by Urso, a minister who is certainly working very hard to provide our country with greater autonomy on the energy front, fits into a European context that has been studying the nuclear issue for some time. The war in Ukraine and its consequences in terms of supplies of energy raw materials from Russia has placed Europe in front of the dilemma of how to replace a large portion of imported energy. The choice concerns not only the countries from which to import the raw material, but also how to get it at home. For example, using renewable energy sources and other forms of clean energy such as third-generation nuclear energy.
Coal and gas power plants burn carbon compounds, which are then released into the atmosphere as CO2.. Renewable sources apparently do not burn anything: this is because they exploit the terrestrial effects of nuclear reactions that take place in the sun. Nuclear power plants use uranium, with a different type of nuclear reactions than those that take place in the sun. Different fuels lead to different characteristics for each source, the main ones being the amount of carbon emitted per unit of energy (kWh), the “capacity factor” (i.e. the ratio between energy generated and maximum energy that can be generated), the cost per unit of energy and the energy density (material used to produce a unit of energy). Nuclear energy generates electricity in 14 of the 27 EU member states and currently provides 25% of European electricity and 50% of low-carbon electricity. But what seems fundamental is understanding whether the so-called latest-generation nuclear, which is also defined by some as fourth-generation because it was created to overcome the limitations of third-generation nuclear born in the late 1980s, can really be an adequate energy source.
“Generation IV nuclear” refers to the energy that can be obtained from the splitting of very heavy atoms such as uranium, plutonium and thorium, which can improve the Third Generation, and guarantee the following objectives: sustainability, economics, safety and reliability, reduction of the production of radioactive waste, resistance to nuclear proliferation and physical protection. As a replacement for those of the “III+” they have been proposed as large-scale reactors (1000 MW and more), but today we also talk about Generation IV for projects of lower power reactors. The GIF (Generation IV International Forum), an international body founded in 2000 by the United States Department of Energy and which has 13 member countries in addition to Euratomhas selected six types of reactors that can meet the objectives listed above and on which to focus research and development efforts: three thermal reactors and three fast neutron breeder reactors. But even if the doubts and uncertainties related to this technology are still many, certainly every form of alternative energy to fossil fuels must be analyzed and considered without prejudice, preconceptions and ideological positions, which risk compromising a healthy, economically sustainable, gradual and balanced green energy transition of our continent.
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