Bribes will decide new reactor sites in Italy

Hardly surprising, coming from the notoriously corrupt Berlusconi government, it has been reported that municipalities willing to take a new reactor will be paid 30 million euros – 6 million for each of the five years of anticipated construction. There is no mention of what happens when the construction projects go beyond schedule (not to mention over budget). Frontrunners are mainly sites originally targeted for reactors before the entire program was shut down by national referendum in 1987 after the Chernobyl explosion. However, the Berlusconi government believes the time is right to over-turn the view of the Italian public. Environmental groups are already organizing opposition.

French will lead nuclear revival in Italy

The French utility, Electricite de France, will lead the revival of nuclear power in Italy through a joint venture with Italian energy company, Enel. Italy's three operating reactors (the fourth was already closed) were shuttered in 1987 after a national referendum, in large part a response to the Chernobyl accident. Italians experienced the deadly fallout from Chernobyl and endured restrictions on fresh food consumption and outside activities because of the radioactive contamination caused by the Ukraine reactor disaster.

The Berlusconi government passed a new law last month that effectively overturned the will of the Italian people expressed in the 1987 referendum.

Showdown at Scanzano: The Italian nuclear waste dump blocade

Paul and Linda Gunter delivered a keynote address at the Peace Action Central New York annual conference, including a narrative about the successful protest in the southern Italian town of Scanzano Jonico when the Italian government attempted to dump the country's high-level waste there.

And see an archived story by Linda Gunter in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - Showdown at Scanzano - about the Scanzano protest.