Salvini to request technical task force on nuclear power

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 11 - Deputy Premier and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini said on Tuesday he would ask for the creation of a technical task force on nuclear power on the basis that ideology must not preclude any form of energy supply.
    "I will ask the ministers in charge for a technical task force on nuclear power in the coming days, because obviously on the front of technological neutrality we cannot say no to an energy source on the basis of prejudice," said Salvini at the inauguration of a dynamic lane on the A4 motorway in Milan.
    "It is important that ideology does not preclude any source of energy supply," he insisted.
    Italy closed its nuclear plants in 1990 after the 1987 referendum on atomic energy following the Chernobyl disaster.
    However, there have been calls for a rethink of the ban, given that nuclear energy has a low carbon footprint and there is a need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet European and international targets for combating the climate crisis.
    The country is also looking to boost its energy security following Russia's war of invasion in Ukraine.
    Last month Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said renewables such as hydro-electric, geothermal, solar and wind will probably not be enough on their own to replace fossil fuels and that it will probably be necessary to have nuclear power in the energy mix too. (ANSA).