The Senate's New Law Sets Up a Framework, Not a Single Reactor Yet, With First Plants Eyed for 2033-2034Italy's Senate gave final approval on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, to a delega (enabling law) authorizing the government to build a regulatory framework for what officials are calling "sustainable nuclear energy," nearly 40 years after the country voted to abandon atomic power following the 1987 referendums. The bill passed 81 votes in favor, 51 against, and 7 abstentions, completing its journey through parliament after the Chamber of Deputies approved it back in June.The most important thing to understand about the law, and the detail multiple outlets covering the vote were careful to stress, is what it doesn't do: it doesn't authorize a single new nuclear plant today. The law simply establishes the framework within which future projects could eventually be evaluated. The actual criteria, procedures and operational rules will be set by subsequent decreti attuativi (implementing decrees), which the government now has 12 months to issue, with a further 24 months allowed for corrective amendments. What the Law Actually Covers The measure delegates to the government the authority to regulate the construction and management of nuclear plants, hydrogen production via nuclear energy, spent fuel treatment, and operational safety standards, areas that have been completely dormant in Italy since the 1987 referendum shut the door on the technology entirely. Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, who signed the original bill, called it a historic day for Italy, and framed nuclear power not as a return to the past but as, in his words, a winning technology that, combined with renewables, can deliver extraordinary results for the country's energy security on the path toward 2050 climate neutrality. He was explicit that the government's approach centers on a mixed energy system, where nuclear complements rather than replaces renewable sources in stabilizing the grid. Timeline: 2033-2034 for First Plants The government's own estimate puts the first operational plants somewhere in the 2033-2034 window. Pichetto Fratin has said the implementing decrees themselves should arrive by the end of 2026, translating the law's broad framework into actual operational criteria. On the persistent question of nuclear waste, which has dogged Italy's nuclear debate for decades given the country still has no operational deposit for waste from its long-shuttered plants, Pichetto clarified that the deposit question is explicitly included in the delega. He distinguished between the relatively small volume of highly radioactive waste, which he said amounts to roughly 20-plus containers, or about 200 square meters, destined for temporary storage before eventual transfer to a geological repository currently being evaluated at the European level, and the much larger category of low- and medium-intensity waste: steel, iron and brick from Italy's old decommissioned plants, plus the ongoing daily production of radioactive waste, much of it from hospitals. A Familiar Political Divide Reaction split along predictable lines. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni celebrated the vote on social media, writing that after nearly 40 years, Italy again has a regulatory framework for producing nuclear energy, calling it a courageous and sensible choice. Opposition voices pushed back sharply. Mariolina Castellone of the Movimento 5 Stelle dismissed the underlying technology as either not yet existing or not commercially viable today. Angelo Bonelli of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra called the plan an "economic folly," demanding that Meloni and Pichetto Fratin disclose how much the plan would actually cost and who would finance it. Not Italy's First Attempt, and Unlikely to Be Its Last Debate Italy's relationship with nuclear power has followed a genuinely cyclical pattern for decades. The country built and briefly operated plants at Latina, Garigliano, Trino and Caorso before the 1987 referendum, triggered largely by public anxiety following the Chernobyl disaster, led to shutdowns between 1988 and 1990. A second referendum in 2011, held in the immediate aftermath of Fukushima, reaffirmed the ban decisively. Even the push behind this current law traces back to familiar triggers: when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine hit in February 2022, then-Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani, a committed nuclear advocate, didn't manage to launch any concrete initiative, leaving it to his successor, Pichetto Fratin, to actually push the current return through parliament. What Happens Next With the framework law now approved, attention shifts to the implementing decrees due within the next year, the documents that will actually determine which technologies Italy pursues (small modular reactors are widely expected to feature prominently), where any future plants or waste facilities might be sited, and how the government squares its nuclear ambitions with a public that has twice voted decisively against the technology. Given Italy's track record on this exact issue, twice reversing course after major nuclear accidents elsewhere in the world, whether this "historic day" marks a genuine turning point or another chapter in a debate that resurfaces every time an energy crisis hits is a question Italy has effectively been asking itself, and re-answering, since 1987.

Italy's Senate gave final approval on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, to a delega (enabling law) authorizing the government to build a regulatory framework for what officials are calling "sustainable nuclear energy," nearly 40 years after the country voted to abandon atomic power following the 1987 referendums. The bill passed 81 votes in favor, 51 against, and 7 abstentions, completing its journey through parliament after the Chamber of Deputies approved it back in June. The most important thing to understand about the law, and the detail multiple outlets covering the vote were careful to stress, is what it doesn't do: it doesn't authorize a single new nuclear plant today. The law simply establishes the framework within which future projects could eventually be evaluated. The actual criteria, procedures and operational rules will be set by subsequent decreti attuativi (implementing decrees), which the government now has 12 months to issue, with a further 24 months allowed for corrective amendments. The measure delegates to the government the authority to regulate the construction and management of nuclear plants, hydrogen production via nuclear energy, spent fuel treatment, and operational safety standards, areas that have been completely dormant in Italy since the 1987 referendum shut the door on the technology entirely. Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, who signed the original bill, called it a historic day for Italy, and framed nuclear power not as a return to the past but as, in his words, a winning technology that, combined with renewables, can deliver extraordinary results for the country's energy security on the path toward 2050 climate neutrality. He was explicit that the government's approach centers on a mixed energy system, where nuclear complements rather than replaces renewable sources in stabilizing the grid. The government's own estimate puts the first operational plants somewhere in the 2033-2034 window. Pichetto Fratin has said the implementing decrees themselves should arrive by the end of 2026, translating the law's broad framework into actual operational criteria. On the persistent question of nuclear waste, which has dogged Italy's nuclear debate for decades given the country still has no operational deposit for waste from its long-shuttered plants, Pichetto clarified that the deposit question is explicitly included in the delega. He distinguished between the relatively small volume of highly radioactive waste, which he said amounts to roughly 20-plus containers, or about 200 square meters, destined for temporary storage before eventual transfer to a geological repository currently being evaluated at the European level, and the much larger category of low- and medium-intensity waste: steel, iron and brick from Italy's old decommissioned plants, plus the ongoing daily production of radioactive waste, much of it from hospitals. Reaction split along predictable lines. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni celebrated the vote on social media, writing that after nearly 40 years, Italy again has a regulatory framework for producing nuclear energy, calling it a courageous and sensible choice. Opposition voices pushed back sharply. Mariolina Castellone of the Movimento 5 Stelle dismissed the underlying technology as either not yet existing or not commercially viable today. Angelo Bonelli of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra called the plan an "economic folly," demanding that Meloni and Pichetto Fratin disclose how much the plan would actually cost and who would finance it. Italy's relationship with nuclear power has followed a genuinely cyclical pattern for decades. The country built and briefly operated plants at Latina, Garigliano, Trino and Caorso before the 1987 referendum, triggered largely by public anxiety following the Chernobyl disaster, led to shutdowns between 1988 and 1990. A second referendum in 2011, held in the immediate aftermath of Fukushima, reaffirmed the ban decisively. Even the push behind this current law traces back to familiar triggers: when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine hit in February 2022, then-Environment Minister Roberto Cingolani, a committed nuclear advocate, didn't manage to launch any concrete initiative, leaving it to his successor, Pichetto Fratin, to actually push the current return through parliament. With the framework law now approved, attention shifts to the implementing decrees due within the next year, the documents that will actually determine which technologies Italy pursues (small modular reactors are widely expected to feature prominently), where any future plants or waste facilities might be sited, and how the government squares its nuclear ambitions with a public that has twice voted decisively against the technology. Given Italy's track record on this exact issue, twice reversing course after major nuclear accidents elsewhere in the world, whether this "historic day" marks a genuine turning point or another chapter in a debate that resurfaces every time an energy crisis hits is a question Italy has effectively been asking itself, and re-answering, since 1987.