Berlusconi accepts nuclear blow

Greenpeace says the technology is as dangerous as in Japan

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Italians have begun voting in four referendums, the most important of which is whether people want Italy to resume nuclear power production.

Anti-nuclear campaigners say the Fukushima disaster in Japan has helped sway public opinion against nuclear.

The referendums are also being seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy's last nuclear programme was abandoned in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster.

The government says a nuclear industry is vital to supply about 20% of electricity needs by 2020.

But the disaster at the Fukushima plant, which was crippled by the tsunami and earthquake that hit northern Japan in March, has changed the debate entirely.

Now Salvatore Barbera, from the campaign group Greenpeace, says people have seen the dangers and will reject nuclear energy in the referendum

"This is an old technology, it's dangerous as we saw in Fukushima," he said.

"It's dangerous when it's operating, it's dangerous when you have nuclear waste, no-one in the world knows how to deal with it, and now it's also expensive."

If Italy does follow Germany and rejects nuclear power, that will be particularly disappointing to many in industry who believe alternative sources of electricity are not reliable.

Silvio Rossignoli from the aerospace company Sekur says only nuclear can guarantee supplies.

"We want to have nuclear because it's environmentally friendly and it's much cleaner than all the coal and gas," he said.

"It's not depending on importing from other countries, where you never know what happens."

Italians are also being asked to vote on water privatisation issues and whether government ministers can be exempted from court cases.

That is especially important to Mr Berlusconi, who is currently involved with four trials.

There is a lot at stake in this referendum, with the results due on Monday.

This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-13741105

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