Every time I go to my beach house in Latina, just south of Rome, I drive past a dismantled nuclear energy plant, and I get mad. When I was a child it was a ghostly place, with sealed entrances and locked gates. An off-limits, dangerous zone, albeit surrounded by lush, tall eucalyptus trees. Nuclear energy has been banned in Italy since the post-Chernobyl referendum of 1987.
Today, despite a long phase of decommissioning and safety fixes, the power plant still sits there, abandoned for almost half a century. It’s really close to the pristine beaches, the grazing buffalo and kiwi plantations. Even though the authorities have now made the old power plant safe, the locals have mixed feelings about the danger it still embodies.
Antonio, a former farmer who now runs a bar around 200 meters away from the site, says that although the reactor has long been shut down, he’s worried about fires breaking out. If that happens, radioactive material could leak into the air, and contaminate the surrounding land.
“What’s the point of having it closed if you keep running the risk? We might as well resume its original nuclear purpose,” he said, somewhat frustrated, throwing his hands into the air, together with the cappuccino left in his cup.
Families sunbathing with children at the nearby nature reserve think the nuclear plant is “a monster” that could wake at any minute.
“We try not to drive past it when we go down to our favourite beach. Just the sight of it sends shivers up my spine. I am terrified for my children’s health, and hope it’s dead for good,” said Paolo, a young plumber.
But there’s an issue hardly anyone considers. If only the production of nuclear energy in Italy were resumed nationwide, we could curb our dependence on gas imported from abroad and save a lot of money. Household bills here in Italy are getting out of control. We had a cold January this year – my heating bill for that month alone was around €600.
Italians have to get over their fear of nuclear power and embrace new government plans to use new forms of “clean” nuclear energy production.
This “revival” has been on the agenda of prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who intends to curb fossil-fuel consumption and imports. But even if approved by parliament, and then by the Italian population, this won’t bear fruit for a decade or so. It took ages to fully dismantle all nuclear plants in Italy. We’d be starting again from scratch.
I think Italians are freaking out at the thought of a potentially apocalyptic scenario, and I think many of them are hypocrites. Italy buys nuclear energy from France and other European countries – they just don’t want the plants in their backyard.
“If a nuclear reactor exploded in France, the border with Italy is so close it would trigger a domino effect even here, so this nimby policy is really dumb,” said Isabella, a friend who lives in Sestriere, a ski resort in Piedmont just over the border with France.
Back in 1987, following the Chernobyl disaster, I remember my parents debating with our neighbours over whether shutting down all nuclear energy plants in Italy was purely an “instinctive”, “reaction-induced” political move that Italians would one day regret. A few years later, my family and I moved to Moscow – we were never worried about radiation from Chernobyl.
Nuclear energy would cut costs and help the economy. It’s time for another referendum.
Silvia Marchetti is a freelance reporter based in Rome
