London (Platts)--14May2009

Italy's move to reintroduce nuclear power took a further step forward
Thursday when the proposed enabling law was approved by the Senate, the upper
house of parliament.

It must now return to the lower house -- the Chamber of Deputies -- for
its final approval.

With 154 votes in favor, 98 against and 3 abstentions, the Senate
approved draft Law 1195, which is a package of measures on fiscal
consolidation, industrial internationalization and energy matters,
specifically nuclear energy.

Nuclear reintroduction was part of the election manifesto of Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the government has said it is working to a
target of 25% of energy to be provided by nuclear power by 2030.

Introducing the proposal to bring back nuclear power, in May 2008,
economic development minister Claudia Scajola that building "a group of
new-generation nuclear power stations" would reduce the country's reliance on
oil and gas. He said then that construction was scheduled to begin by 2013.

A bilateral nuclear power cooperation agreement was signed in late
February between Berlusconi and visiting French President Sarkozy.

The agreement is to cover "all aspects of nuclear power, from
collaboration on a European level to questions of security, from technical
cooperation to the training of experts, from dismantling old plants to
industrial collaboration in third countries," a statement from the economic
development ministry, following the signing, said.

Italy voted in a referendum in 1986, following the nuclear disaster at
Chernobyl, Ukraine, to phase out nuclear power. Its last plant was closed in
1990.