Minister's referendum remarks come after lower house approved a delegation law on sustainable nuclear energy earlier this month.Italy's government is preparing for the prospect of a new referendum on nuclear power within the next few years, even as it pushes ahead with legislation aimed at reviving the technology nearly four decades after voters rejected it.Speaking on Monday at a sustainable nuclear energy event in Turin, environment and energy security minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said he took for granted that a referendum on nuclear energy would be held in 2028 or 2029, describing the right to take part in such decisions as guaranteed by the Italian constitution. He said it was entirely natural in a democracy for citizens to gather signatures to call a referendum, and that the government's priority was to provide maximum clarity, transparency and answers on the issue. Nuclear energy law The minister's remarks came less than two weeks after the chamber of deputies approved a delegation law on sustainable nuclear energy, by 155 votes to 86, with eight abstentions. The move marked the first parliamentary step towards nuclear power in Italy since the 1987 referendum that shut down the country's reactors in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. The bill, which still needs senate approval before becoming law, would empower the government to draft implementing decrees within 12 months covering the construction and operation of new nuclear facilities, radioactive waste management, fusion research and safety governance. Pichetto Fratin said he hoped to present all the legislative decrees by Christmas, well ahead of the year allowed under the law. Rather than the large-scale plants Italy operated before 1987, the government's plan centres on small modular reactors, advanced modular reactors and micro-reactors - technologies ministers argue are cheaper, more flexible and quicker to deploy, though no fully operational examples yet exist anywhere in Europe The government has set a target of having nuclear electricity production running by around 2035, framing the move as essential to meeting decarbonisation goals, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels and containing energy costs for consumers and industry. Divisions The plan has exposed familiar divisions in Italian politics. The governing centre-right parties backed the bill, while much of the centre-left opposition, including the Movimento 5 Stelle and sections of the Partito Democratico, voted against it, warning that the legislation risks triggering another referendum that could derail the project just as happened in 1987. Under Italian law, any new statute can be challenged if 500,000 citizens sign a petition calling for a popular vote, and anti-nuclear campaigners are already organising. Some analysts say that dynamic helps explain the government's haste to pass the law and issue its implementing decrees as quickly as possible, before opposition can be mobilised into a referendum campaign. Italy's shift mirrors a broader rethink of nuclear power across Europe: the EU has begun classifying it as a low-carbon investment, and countries such as France - which generates around 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear plants - are increasingly cited as a model for energy security.

Italy's government is preparing for the prospect of a new referendum on nuclear power within the next few years, even as it pushes ahead with legislation aimed at reviving the technology nearly four decades after voters rejected it. Speaking on Monday at a sustainable nuclear energy event in Turin, environment and energy security minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said he took for granted that a referendum on nuclear energy would be held in 2028 or 2029, describing the right to take part in such decisions as guaranteed by the Italian constitution. He said it was entirely natural in a democracy for citizens to gather signatures to call a referendum, and that the government's priority was to provide maximum clarity, transparency and answers on the issue. The minister's remarks came less than two weeks after the chamber of deputies , by 155 votes to 86, with eight abstentions. The move marked the first parliamentary step towards nuclear power in Italy since the 1987 referendum that shut down the country's reactors in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. The bill, which still needs senate approval before becoming law, would empower the government to draft implementing decrees within 12 months covering the construction and operation of new nuclear facilities, radioactive waste management, fusion research and safety governance. Pichetto Fratin said he hoped to present all the legislative decrees by Christmas, well ahead of the year allowed under the law. Rather than the large-scale plants Italy operated before 1987, the government's plan centres on small modular reactors, advanced modular reactors and micro-reactors - technologies ministers argue are cheaper, more flexible and quicker to deploy, though no fully operational examples yet exist anywhere in Europe The government has set a target of having nuclear electricity production running by around 2035, framing the move as essential to meeting decarbonisation goals, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels and containing energy costs for consumers and industry. The plan has exposed familiar divisions in Italian politics. The governing centre-right parties backed the bill, while much of the centre-left opposition, including the Movimento 5 Stelle and sections of the Partito Democratico, voted against it, warning that the legislation risks triggering another referendum that could derail the project just as happened in 1987. Under Italian law, any new statute can be challenged if 500,000 citizens sign a petition calling for a popular vote, and anti-nuclear campaigners are already organising. Some analysts say that dynamic helps explain the government's haste to pass the law and issue its implementing decrees as quickly as possible, before opposition can be mobilised into a referendum campaign. Italy's shift mirrors a broader rethink of nuclear power across Europe: the EU has begun classifying it as a low-carbon investment, and countries such as France - which generates around 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear plants - are increasingly cited as a model for energy security.