Angelo Baracca ^a, Giorgio Ferrari ^b and Roberto Renzetti ^c

^a Department of Physics, University of Florence; ^b Former ENEL specialist; ^c Physicist,

Angelo Baracca (corresponding author)

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence

via G. Sansone, 1

 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI)

Tel.: (39)3280196987

e-mail: baracca@fi.infn.it

Giorgio Ferrari

…..

e-mail: giorgio.ferrari@autoproduzioni.net

Roberto Renzetti

Physicist

Via Avegno 58

00165 Roma (RM)

Tel (39)0666417178

Abstract

The Italian civil nuclear projects had a very precocious origin, since the early ideas originated as early as 1945. The construction of the first three plants went back to the period 1956-1964, and at that time Italy ranked third in the world as installed power. However, the very ambitious projects were immediately after thwarted in the early 1960s by the “Ippolito trial”. Actually, a whole of advanced programs for the development of the country went to a stop, since they clashed with national and international major powers. Italy was relegated to a second rank power. The fourth nuclear plan was designed in 1970, and its commercial operation began in 1981. In the meantime, a strong anti-nuclear movement grew, and the position of the pro-nuclear Italian Communist Party began to change. After the Chernobyl accident, a national referendum was held, which in 1987 definitely stopped the Italian nuclear programs.

Keywords: Early development of Italian nuclear programs; the first three nuclear plants; nationalization of electric energy; the “Ippolito trial”; National Energy Plan (PEN); anti-nuclear movement;  National Authority for nuclear and Alternative Energies (ENEA); 1987 referendum.

1. Introduction. The framework

The nuclear programs are always, in every country, very complex processes, due to the complexity of this technology and the huge economic and political interests it involves. But in Italy further complications usually arise in every process, typical of the Italian system, such as the clash between interests, off-stage plots, and dark manoeuvres, if not corruption. The debate on the nuclear programs in Italy has been extremely harsh, popular movements have been very strong and polarized in certain phases, the evaluations of these programs form different social components have often been quite different, or divergent. The international context has played an important role in many phases of the Italian nuclear programs, not always in transparent ways. For these reasons, it is quite problematic to reconstruct a true history of the Italian nuclear programs.1 Moreover, in our opinion a full reconstruction cannot be restricted to the analysis of official documents and archives (though they are of course very important, but still deficient), but it must refer to the political (not only internal) events, the relations of power and their evolution in the country, whose dynamics and motivations are often far from clear (Italy is the country of mysteries!). Some reconstructions reflect partisan views on nuclear power. ²

Trying to take into account all these aspects, our reconstruction will necessarily be very concise.

2. Some peculiar features of the situation, and the nuclear programs in Italy

There were both internal and international factors that we consider important to evidence, including typical drawbacks and contradictions of the Italian affairs.

i) Italy came out of the war, socially and economically, deeply destroyed. There was no technologically advanced industry or know-how. The private electrical industries constituted one of the strongest economic and political powers, mainly in the first two post-war decades.

ii) Before the war there was no scientific research centre, apart from the Institute of Physics in Rome, in which Enrico Fermi and his group carried out the fundamental neutron experiments in 1934: ³ but the Fermi group had no real possibility of acquiring the equipment necessary to develop its programs, and the racial laws of 1938 were the final impulse for the majority of the components of the group, and other physicists, to leave Italy. Only Edoardo Amaldi stayed in Italy, making an effort to sustain with some continuity an activity of fundamental research under the Nazi occupation,4 and to rebuild and relaunch Italian physics after the war.⁵ There was therefore a serious shortcoming of trained staff.

iii) In these precarious conditions, it appears noteworthy that the radical novelty and potential of nuclear energy were grasped immediately after the nuclear explosions on Japan by a (however  small) number of young physicists and engineers. Amaldi, and some other physicist, supported the early projects, perceiving the strong relationship between technology and fundamental physics, in which they were more interested. These young scholars had the capacity for establishing the contacts with the right people, and translating this early perception into concrete projects in the field of nuclear technology.

iv) In spite of these precarious conditions, Italy was the only country among the war losers which planned and succeeded to undertake projects and activities in the field of nuclear energy. Germany was forbidden for a long time to develop activities in this field. Japan was a very different story, since the US carried out in that country a subtle and widespread propaganda aimed to minimize the events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, exalting the progressive role of “civil” nuclear technology.6

v) However, the enlightened Italian promoters of nuclear projects faced at the beginning a crucial precondition, since the peace treaty which was under negotiation in Paris (with Italy in a marginal role) could have forbidden every activity in the applied nuclear field. Not before autumn 1946 such a danger was thwarted. But only the subscription by the country of the NATO treatise in 1949 gave the green light to a nuclear agreement with the US in 1955 (during the take off of the campaign of Atoms for Peace).

vi) In this complex context, the scant group of the young Italian promoters, with no direct experience in the new field, from the outset planned, and actively started in the following couple of decades, a wide spectrum of nuclear projects covering almost all the aspect of the nuclear cycle (including the design and construction of a domestic nuclear reactor).

vii) The Italian political class and governments showed however a deep indifference, and ignorance, towards nuclear energy. The early initiatives in this field were undertaken by private industries (CISE, 1946). The earliest State initiative had to wait the year 1952 (CNRN). This situation deeply contrasts with what happened in the other countries, where specially-constituted public bodies were established (AEC in the US, CEA in France, AEA in the UK).

viii) However the private initiative introduced a deep contradiction, since the powerful private electrical industry strenuously opposed the nationalization of the electric sector. Paradoxically, this contradictory situation brought to the surprisingly quick and precocious order and construction of the first three nuclear plants (1955-1964), among the earliest in the world. But this sudden start did not reflect a coherent plan, and took place in absence of a national law for the nuclear sector (which was seen by private industry as a step towards nationalization).

ix) Just when this remarkable result was being achieved, in the early 1960s, the Italian nuclear ambitions came to an abrupt stop, due to the explosion of a blatant scandal, whose true causes and instigators have never been completely clarified. Actually, the nuclear choice was opposed by powerful (internal, but mainly international) forces that pushed for a subordinate role of the country in the Western block, substantially excluded from advanced technologies, producer of mass consumer goods, and energy dependent. After the stop to the nuclear programs, Italy became completely dependent on oil. HERE INSERT FIGURE

x) The Italian military have played a marginal role in the field of nuclear energy, although in some phases they have exhibited some ambitious project.

3. Phases of development of the Italian nuclear programs

The development of the Italian nuclear programs must be divided into distinct phases, separated by sudden breaking-off, within deep contradictions.

 After the early private initiatives as early as 1946, the following sudden take-off between 1955 and the early 1960s projected Italy among the top nuclear countries in the world. However, this occurred without a coherent programme (nor a nuclear law), although the ambitious target was the installation of 6,000 MW of nuclear power by 1975 (a task never reached during the whole history of the Italian nuclear programs). There was even an original project of an Italian natural uranium, heavy water “fog” reactor, called “Cirene”, which was never completed, and turned into a big waste of money.

The four Italian power reactors ^a

^a To these, one must add the research reactors Avogadro, Tapiro, Triga, Raptus, Exor (Ispra), the Cirene, the never finished fast reactor PEC, and the military research reactor at CAMEN near Pisa.

^b date of connection to the electric grid.

^c At the date of its start it was the most powerful nuclear reactor in Europe.

But in 1963-64 these developments suffered a drastic stop, when the General Secretary of Italian Commission for Nuclear Energy (CNEN), Felice Ippolito, was charged and condemned for administrative irregularities. Only in 1971 the construction began of the bigger nuclear plant at Caorso, which however had to wait 1981 to enter into effective operation.

During the Seventies and Eighties a sequence of more or less pharaonic National Energy Programs (PEN) was proposed by successive Governments, but strong popular protests were growing. Actually, the history or the Italian nuclear programs cannot be considered exhaustive until a complete history of popular movements will be reconstructed. And this is a difficult challenge, since popular movements hardly ever leave documentary traces of they organization and actions, and should resort to oral history, or articles in newspaper. In fact, while the construction of a fifth nuclear plant began, a popular referendum was launched, intended to definitely stop the Italian nuclear programs. The impression of the 1986 Chernobyl contributed to the result of the referendum in 1987, which put an end to every Italian nuclear ambition (but left with a heavy inheritance, a real emergence which is far from being closed after three decades).

The short-lived unsuccessful attempt of relaunch a quarter of century later by the Berlusconi government in 2008 was buried after the Fukushima disaster by a second national referendum in 2011. In the meantime almost nothing has been done for solving the inheritance left by the previous programs, leaving the problems of the decommissioning of four reactors and of the disposal of nuclear wastes practically unsolved, with heavy economic burdens and environmental and health dangers.

4. The postwar economic and industrial situation. Big interests and the energy choices

Although Italy came out of the war with deep destructions, the damages to the industrial park was relatively limited and – mainly in the industrialized North, and in part thanks to partisans and workers, who occupied the factories – a park of recently built plants remained, although with an around 50 % level of utilization⁷. The fall of the German competition, and cheap labour opened big perspectives for the Italian industry.

The electric and steel industries had acquired a strong power under the fascism, thanks to their deep intertwining with the regime, and in war time: after the war they were in the best position to exploit the difficult situation of the country, and strongly opposed any policy of economic planning.⁸

Reconstruction and industrial restructuring substantially consisted in mature technologies, and the strong economic development of the years 1950-1963 was mainly based on low cost of labour, and labour-intensive production in the car industry. Electricity production was almost entirely of hydroelectric origin, and completely in the hands of highly concentrated private industries:  in 1941, 8 firms out of the existing 320 controlled 77 % of the electrical production; in 1960, 5 firms out of 600 controlled 81 % of the production. The left-wing repeatedly proposed since 1946-1947 the nationalization of the electric industry, but it was always rejected by the Christian Democratic party, under the pressure of the electrical monopolies.⁹ When this clash went to an end in 1948 (defeat of the left), the minister of industry, Ivan Matteo Lombardo (Social Democratic Party, of the current of Saragat, whose heavy role in connection with the American interests we will meet again later on), authorized the escalation of electrical fares up to 2.300 %, plus a series of other concessions. Therefore every initiative in the nuclear field – from the nuclear law up to the study of reactors – was seen with suspicion: even the construction of nuclear plants was opposed by electrical monopolies, at least until they realized (around mid 1950s) that public companies (CNRN, ENI) would start building them. Then they rushed too, with the attempt of biasing the by then urgent nuclear law.

There were however in post-war Italy other economic and political forces that supported different alternatives for the development of the country, aimed to achieve a more autonomous and protagonist role in the international context. During the 1950s, Olivetti reached a world leading position in electronic computers. A very relevant initiative was the foundation in 1953 of a State owned Oil Company, ENI (Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi), having the monopoly for the exploitation of national resources, thanks to the media campaign financed by Enrico Mattei in order to enhance the discovery of natural gas and oil fields in Italy. Mattei was an innovative and resourceful, though fairly unscrupulous, Christian Democrat manager,¹⁰ who opposed the trends of private industry, and developed also a direct, deeply innovative policy towards the oil producing countries (the so-called “fifty-fifty” contracts), contrasting the oligopolistic international policy of the “Seven Sisters” which dominated the world oil market.

One must also recall that Italy – unique among the capitalistic countries – had inherited from fascism also an important economic State sector,11 the IRI (Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale, Institute for Industrial Reconstruction), founded in 1933 in order to sustain industries and banks in front of economic difficulties.

5. The early developments concerning nuclear power in Italy, 1945-1957

5.1. From the early proposals to CISE, 1945-1952

The early ideas of undertaking activities in the field of the pacific exploitation of nuclear energy were aired as early as in August 1945, in the aftermath of the news about the atomic bomb, by three young Italian scientists: the physicists Giorgio Salvini and Carlo Salvetti, of the University of Milan, and the engineer Mario Silvestri, who had been just hired by the electrical firm Edison and placed in the Technical Department. The Managing Director, Vittorio De Biasi, asked the Department to immediately collate information of this new form of energy.

Around the end of the year Amaldi prepared a report entitled La Fisica in Italia (Physics in Italy), in which he stated his opinion on what was needed not only for the future recovery and development of fundamental research in Italy, but also for “the right and proper development of peaceful applications of nuclear physics”.¹²

Salvini, Salvetti and Silvestri raised the interest of professor Giuseppe Bolla, of the University of Milan, and at the beginning of 1946 they drafted a three stage plan for assembling a research group, setting off a nuclear chain reaction, and building in perspective an experimental nuclear reactor. Bolla visited Amaldi in Rome, who accepted to collaborate, with his colleagues Gilberto Bernardini and Bruno Ferretti¹³. The largest industrial groups in northern Italy were contacted, and the idea matured of setting out an ad hoc company.

These initiatives however had to be kept under wraps since Italy had yet to sign the peace treaty, and was forbidden from embarking in nuclear research. The Italian politicians were absolutely unaware of this kind of problems, so that in September 1946 the promoters went to Paris in order to get through to the Italian delegation to the negotiations for the Peace treaty in order to make it aware against the danger that the treaty could permanently forbid Italy to conduce activities into the peaceful applications of nuclear physics.

When it was clear that this danger had been escaped (the Peace treaty was signed in December 1946), on 19 November 1946 the limited liability, non-profit company CISE (Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze, Centre Information Study Experiences) was established in Milan to build a nuclear reactor for electric generation purposes. CISE was housed in premises of Edison, the shareholders were some major Italian industrial groups: the electric companies Edison and SADE, FIAT, Cogne (foundry), Montecatini (not long afterwards), Falck, Pirelli, Olivetti (in 1949), Terni (in 1950). The Scientific Committee of CISE, presided over by Bolla, was composed by technicians appointed by the shareholders, and integrated by the three young promoters, and the physicists Amaldi, Bernardini, Ferretti, and Giovanni Polvani (University of Milan). Since it was evident to everybody that the birth of a domestic electro-nuclear industry was too big an endeavour for private industries, and the intervention of State was necessary (although feared), the president of the National Research Council (CNR), Gustavo Colonnetti, as an observer was included from the outset.

For more than five years CISE was the only body in Italy which dealt with researches on the peaceful applications of nuclear energy. In the early years CISE had to devote itself mainly to the formation of qualified personnel. By the end of 1951 CISE (although it underwent a moment of crisis for the intention of withdrawal, or reduction of share by some partners) had built a pilot plant to make heavy water through electrolysis, created an experimental uranium metallurgy plant, undertaken in its laboratories important measures on uranium fission, developed leading-edge electronic instruments, besides training specialized personnel.

In the meantime, within 1947 and 1951 the second of Amaldi’s aims was fulfilled, with the creation of centres of CNR for fundamental nuclear research in the Universities of Rome, Padua, Turin and Milan, and the final establishment in 1951 of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), still pertaining to CNR.¹⁴ The presence of Amaldi in CISE avoided interferences and overlapping among programs of fundamental and applied nuclear research: in fact, a division of duties was established between fundamental research, centred in Rome, and applied research to the North.

The access of Italy to NATO in 1949 paved the way to the collaboration with the United States in peaceful nuclear technology: this was made effective in 1955 with a bilateral agreement, and entered into force in July 1956. Previously, the main supply of uranium arrived from Spain (around 300 kg), in 1948.

Despite this, repeated attempts, through many ways, of making aware the Italian government of the importance of peaceful nuclear technology were unsuccessful. In 1950 for time first time CISE unsuccessfully attempted to involve directly the Ministry of Defence and the army, raising the criticism of Amaldi, who was worried that the initiative could pass in the hands of the military.¹⁵ On the other hand, the Italian military showed their ridiculous backwardness in nuclear matters with an alleged experiment of an “H bomb” in 1952 (when neither the Americans nor the Soviets had yet got it) in the shooting range of Nettuno, near Rome!¹⁶

5.2. The first State initiative, CNRN, 1952-1955

At last, a receptive political interlocutor was found in the Minister of Public Works, Pietro Campilli: in 1952 the critical economic situation of CISE was rebalanced, and on 26 June 1952 a National Committee for Nuclear Research (CNRN) was established, like analogous institutions in other countries.¹⁷ But, in order to bypass thorny discussions in the Parliament and opposition inside CISE for every State initiative, and in the absence of an organic nuclear law,  CNRN was not established with a law, but by a Prime Minister’s Decree. This solution deprived the Committee of legal status, an aspect that was to generate several problems in the future. CNRN received state financing from IRI and the Ministry of Industry through CNR, though it was not an organ of CNR, and financed and coordinated the activities of both CISE and INFN. It was provided with a budget of one billion Italian Lire, higher than the whole budget of CNR (but the budgets of the American AEC and the British AEA were equivalent to about 800 and 110 billions Lire respectively). Nevertheless, the establishment of CNRN was considered a big step forward. Chaired by Francesco Giordani (a chemist who had been president of IRI and CNR during the war, with a Southern mentality and hostile to the Northern private industry), CNRN included, among others, Amaldi (who left CISE), Ferretti, De Biasi, Arnaldo Angelini, vice president of Finelettrica, and a young geologist, Felice Ippolito, who as the youngest was appointed as secretary.

CNRN was since the beginning a place of political clash and share-out. Moreover, against big ambitions, its legal indefiniteness made it an inefficient administrative entity: the Committee overcame these difficulties through expedients which allowed to circumvent the legal deficiencies, but later on they would be found out.

CNRN was a committee, without technical staff, while CISE was a research structure, but since the beginning the collaboration of CNRN with CISE was biased by disagreements and suspicions. There was a clash of mentalities between Giordani and De Biasi. The public companies involved in CISE did not meet Giordani’s expectations.

In 1952 CISE submitted to CNRN the construction of an Italian 1.000 kW natural uranium, heavy-water reactor,¹⁸ but it was not taken into consideration. Only later Giordani advanced the requirement for a higher power reactor, and CISE began the work for the already mentioned project Cirene (CIse.REattore.aNEbbia, CISE fog reactor). Moreover, Giordani initially opposed CISE’s requirement for financing, opposing that it was a private institution, and when this aspect was resolved the funds were in any case insufficient. In the meantime, other private nuclear companies, backed by powerful industrial concerns, were established: FIAT and Montecatini jointly created the Società Ricerca Impianti Nucleari (SORIN), and the electric companies the Società Elettronucleare Italiana (SELNI). Instead, the construction of a major public research centre began at Ispra in 1955.

Beyond doubt, a sharp kick-start and boost in nuclear matters was given by the launch of the “Atoms for Peace” campaign in 1953. Even in Italy decisions took shape, among the unsolved contradictions.

5.3. Missions in the United States and purchase of reactors, 1955

In March 1955, CNRN sent a commission in the US with the aim of purchasing a delivery of heavy water, of contracting the purchase of a 1.000 kW, CP-5 research reactor fuelled with 20 % enriched uranium, and of studying the possibility of a supply of a power nuclear plant.19

This was indeed a radical change of objective with respect to the previous CISE’s program, focused on the project of a domestic reactor, turning instead to the dependence on foreign technology, and was considered a betrayal by Edison, worried that the public sector could develop on its’ own the production of electronuclear energy.

This initiative prompted an immediate reaction by the electric industry, that in October 1955 sent in the US another mission, composed by Giorgio Valerio, General Manager of Edison, Franco Castelli and Silvestri, also aimed to discuss the purchase of a nuclear reactor (some contacts had already started in 1954): this initiative raised some surprise even inside the AEC, besides the opposition from CNRN, which urged a legislative initiative from the government.

At the Geneva Conference on nuclear power Italy presented 6 communications (4 from CISE).

In July 1956 the President of CNRN, Giordani, resigned, trying to force the Government to overcome the situation of uncertainty and difficult financial condition of the Committee (he was appointed president of CNR). The Secretary, Felice Ippolito, assumed the charge of General Secretary. The Prime Minister, Segni, would have desired to dissolve CNRN, while Ippolito succeeded in reinforcing and boosting it. CNRN was officially renewed with a Prime Minister’s decree in August 1956. Being the new President, Focaccia (a trustworthy Chritian Democratic Senator), completely unread in nuclear energy, Ippolito had more freedom of governing the Committee and pursuing his own views: a new phase began, fraught with crucial events. With the renewal of CNRN, De Biasi was excluded.

In this period the CP-5 research reactor was definitely purchased by CNRN from the US (somebody, like Edoardo Amaldi and Mario Ageno, pushed for a British choice): it was very expensive ($ 3 millions) and became operative in 1959, with a power of 5.000 kW and the name Ispra-1, at the new centre in Ispra, showing immediately heavy design shortcomings.²⁰

The construction of the mentioned research centre at Ispra raised immediate problems for CNRN. Lacking legal status, it had to create an appropriate joint-stock company in order to acquire the ground. CISE was involved in the construction, but the tensions with CNRN flared, leading in September 1957 to cut the relations between the two organizations, and CNRN decided to continue the prject alone. But again CNRN had to create a joint-stock company (NUCLIT), which took on a large number of the staff previously employed by CISE, which had consequently to recast its programs and activities. CNRN took finally a dominant position in Italy’s civil nuclear industry, assuming also technical tasks. The centre of Ispra was finished in 1959, but it was almost immediately made over to Euratom, together with the reactor CP-5, for a community centre. It was probably a far-sighted Ippolito’s choice, judging that the burden was too high for CNRN.

Contradictions emerged also at a European level. In 1956 a commission composed by Louis Armand, Franz Atzel and Giordani, President of CNRN, proposed a gigantic programme of installing by 1967 a total nuclear power covering ¼ of the electrical capacity of the six States, purchasing reactors from the US, while in 1957 CEE established the Euratom with the opposite aim of developing an autonomous and competitive nuclear capacity. The same 1957 was the year of the secret initiative of France, Germany and Italy with the ambitious purpose of developing European nuclear armaments,²¹ which decayed when De Gaulle decided to develop a French Force de Frappe.

Also the Italian military tried again to enter the nuclear programs. An attempt to condition the national choices and to join CNRN in 1954 was thwarted by Giordani. In 1956 CAMEN (Centre for Military Applications of Nuclear Energy) was established near Pisa,²² aimed to the training of personnel, and the study of nuclear propulsion and nuclear armaments. The military planned the purchase of a nuclear reactor in the US through CNRN, clashing with Ippolito. Through the Ministry of Defence and collaboration with the American embassy in Rome, in 1957 they purchased a pool-type reactor,23 an untenable choice for military applications! The reactor was shut down in 1980, with subsequent controversies on the (classified) decommissioning and delivery of radioactive wastes. CAMEN successively changed name into CISAM (Inter-service Centre for Military Studies and Applications): in 1973-1975 (classified) tests were performed of a nuclear capable missile (Italy joined NPT in 1975).

6. The three nuclear plants, 1957-1964

After these premises, among these deep contradictions, and without any general strategy, between 1956 and 1958 the contracts were signed for the purchase of three nuclear power plants, by Edison, CNRN and ENI in strict sequence. They were in fact three uncoordinated, completely different, and competing designs, but they would project Italy in 1964 to the third place for electro-nuclear production in the world, behind the US and UK: a sudden emergence that was the contingent, almost paradoxical, output of the deep contradictions, even of the backwardness of the country. Around 1957 there were barely a few prototypes of power nuclear plants working in the world,24 the choice between different models was objectively very complex, and the available experience very restricted. The choice had also deep political implications: for instance, the choice of an enriched uranium reactor would have determined a strict dependence from the US for the fuel, but a different choice would clash with American interests. The lack of a national legislation, hindered by private industries, created big problems (localization, licence, control, protection, management of the cue of the nuclear cycle), and even obstacles in the bargaining with the United States.

What’s more, in all three cases the Italian purchasers ordered plants that were still in an experimental stage, for which no prototypes were actually up and running, and which were built concurrently with the first reactors of their type in the US and UK. The consequences of the plant technology being immature was to become apparent during plant operation.

We have seen how the visit of Edison in the US in 1955 was a reaction to the previous mission from CNRN. If Edison was the first to order a light-water nuclear power plant from Westinghose, this was an attempt to prevent that the advent of nuclear power, if left in public hands, paved the way to nationalization of the electric industry. Without this fear, private industry would not have invested any money in nuclear energy. In 1957-58 Edison, through the SELNI, applied the Italian Government for a guarantee on exchange rate, in order to protect the loan for future changes in money rates.²⁵ In winter 1957-58 the loan had been formalized with the Export-Import Bank for $ 34 millions: however Ippolito pressed the Ministry of Industry against the lending, which in fact was denied (De Biasi asked to sack Ippolito), causing a delay in the construction of the Edison nuclear plant, which was preceded by those built by the State groups IRI and ENI. The contract was signed only in 1957 with Westinghouse, for a 242 MW reactor, whose prototype was the Yankee one at Rowe, Massachusetts. Only in 1957 CNRN approved the project, subordinated to a safety report by the company, and only in 1960 the localization was decided, at Trino Vercellese (Piedmont, near Turin: a previous intent to locate the plant at Moneglia, near Genoa, was stopped by the first popular opposition). The plant reached criticality in June 1965, was first connected to the network in October 1965, and began commercial generation in December 1965. The final cost of the plant was of $ 41 millions (in front of the $ 34 million loan).

In October 1956 both IRI and ENI expressed the intention of building nuclear plants, in Southern Italy (as national entities). In 1957 the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BIRS, of the UN), together with the Banca d’Italia, proposed to the Italian government the common study for a nuclear plant. The agreement was signed in July 1957, and the construction (project ENSI, Energia Nucleare Sud Italia) was assigned to Finelettrica (IRI) through the public company Società ElettroNucleare Nazionale (SENN, pulled out of SELNI). Nine companies participated to the international tender (four Americans, four British and one French), in September 1958 an American reactor was finally purchased, a 150 MW, BWR light water reactor from General Electric. It was built at Garigliano, Southern Italy, with funds from the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (Fund for Southern Italy) and a financial support of $ 40 millions from the World Bank.²⁶ The plant reached criticality in June 1963, was initially connected to the greed in January 1964, and began commercial generation in May 1964: it would be definitely closed for an accident in 1978.

The third project merits a specific attention. It was built by ENI, whose President, Enrico Mattei, had created in 1956 a specific section (AGIP-Nucleare): for the construction the SIMEA company was created (Società Italiana Meridionale per l’Energia Atomica). Mattei’s choice is remarkable since, along with his strategy of getting autonomous from the United States, he chose a British gas cooled “Magnox” reactor, fuelled with natural uranium. The plant was built in Southern Italy, near Latina, its total cost was around $ 60 millions, and in fact it was the first one to enter into function: criticality was reached on 27 December 1962, electric generation began in May 1963, and commercial production in January 1964. At that date it was the most powerful nuclear reactor in Europe.

The profitability of these projects, and the cost of the electric power produced, seem far from clear, and caused harsh and decisive polemics (Section 9). A “partisan” diagnosis, from a CISE representative, maintains that: «According to official estimates the cost of the electric energy produced … was Lire 7,80 (Latina), Lire 7,20 (Garigliano), Lire 5,40 (Turin), compared with a cost of traditional energy lower than 5 Lire. This means that the annual burden for Italy is around 7 – 8 billion Lire».²⁷

7. 1960, the ambiguous transformation of CNRN into CNEN and the proliferation of nuclear centres and projects

A CNRN’s “white paper” of 1957 was practically a five-years plan for nuclear research. In subsequent years CNRN got to administer significant amounts of money and employ around 1.700 people. Its activities encompassed a wide range of ambitious initiatives and projects, from the development of reactors and the fuel cycle, to the training of scientific and technical staff, the diffusion of information and scientific culture, and basic physics. The latter field absorbed around 20%, through the INFN, whose main commitment was the construction of a large electron synchrotron at Frascati laboratory, near Rome.

The legal regulation of the field at a national level remained however far from clear. The opposition toward an organic nuclear act caused the fall of four bills during the 1950s. The European (Euratom) and international (IAEA) developments after 1957, the following 1959 Ippolito’s gift of Ispra to Euratom, reinforced the commitment for a national organization and regulation, in spite of the resistance of the private electrical industry. Moreover in 1959 CNRN was in a regime of prorogation and faced again financial difficulties. The new Ministry of Industry, Emilio Colombo, presented another bill, which met again strong opposition. But further postponement was infeasible, and a transitional law was approved in August 1960, establishing the National Committee for Nuclear Energy (CNEN, Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare).²⁸ It was not a mere change of name of CNRN, since CNEN were assigned new tasks, such as the technical control and test of all the nuclear plants under construction, and it was granted a legal status, resolving the anomalies of CNRN: nonetheless, not even CNEN was a public economic corporation which could carry out entrepreneurial initiatives. CNEN was chaired by the Ministry of Industry (who however assumed the double role of inspector and inspected), and was run by an Executive Committee. But the five-years plan for nuclear research underwent further delays, creating recurring financial problems to CNEN. Moreover INFN remained in a state of legal uncertainty, and of tensions with CNEN.

Obviously CISE expressed a very negative opinion on this Act, since CNEN subtracted it every space. The more so, since Ippolito was appointed as Secretary General of CNEN. As a matter of fact, Ippolito was left free hand in the administration of CNEN. This boosted a phase of great impulse and dynamism in the management of the Committee and the whole Italian nuclear programme, a sort of (however short) “Ippolito’s age”. There is no doubt that in the confuse institutional status of CNEN, and the chronic stickiness of the Italian bureaucracy (which conditioned in particular the development of scientific research), Ippolito’s administration adopted unscrupulous procedures, at the limit of legitimacy, in order to simplify and circumvent the bureaucratic complication and speed the decisions. But there is not even doubt that this style was approved and admired in the environment of research, and the “Ippolito’s age” was to be recalled as a model of efficiency. It is important to remark that even the political class in the government was informed, or aware, of possible administrative irregularities in the management of CNEN, but did not intervene: the storm was to explode in a sudden and unforeseen way three years later (Section 9).

Actually, the new tasks of CNEN multiplied the ambitious nuclear programs and centres, although in part already provided by CNRN: Italy, although still lacking an organic organization and legislation, apparently acted as one of the most ambitious protagonists in this field! In fact, the overall programme framed the objective to reach a complete autonomy for the Italian nuclear industry, from the design and construction of reactors, up to fuel fabrication and reprocessing, i.e. the full fuel cycle. However, as we have remarked, such an ambitious programme was not an exception, but fitted into a project pursued by a part of the Italian leading class to make the country a protagonist in the world market, both economically and technologically. In particular, not only the goal of reaching an energy independence, but also the unscrupulous approach put Ippolito in common with Enrico Mattei, although the latter was a business leader.

Actually, the first five-years plan (1959-1964) for CNEN, financed with 80 billions Lire for the first year, planned the design and test of four types of reactors: boiling water, cooled with organic substances (PRO, Progetto Reattore Organico, with a cooling mixture of biphenyles and triphenyls), liquid metal, and gas at high temperature. The PRO was a joint project between Agip Nucleare (Group ENI), Fiat and Montecatini, through AGIP-Nucleare and SORIN, including a partnership with American companies (Atomic International, Martin Marietta), coordinated CNEN via research contracts. The project was abandoned during the 1960s (see below). One must remark that some of these projects are not yet satisfactorily working today in the most advanced nuclear countries!

Enriched Uranium Extraction) Programme for the reprocessing of irradiated nuclear fuels in a pilot scale plant, in order to gain technical and economical data for a full scale plant. The EUREX pilot plant of ENEA, located at the Research Centre of Saluggia (Northwest Italy)

On the side of fuel reprocessing, Italy was already taking part in the Eurochemic experimental plant near Mol, Belgium (an OECD joint venture), through CNEN and SORIN, while the EUREX (Enriched URanium EXtraction) pilot plant was under construction at the Research Centre of Saluggia, in northwest Italy:²⁹ in the forthcoming years changes in Eurochemic ended up making the Eurex plant obsolete.³⁰ Moreover, the centre of Casaccia had been established, near Rome, provided with some research reactors.

A programme was also put in place for the uranium-thorium cycle (PCUT, Progetto Ciclo Uranio Torio)³¹, in collaboration with the American AEC, aiming to design, build, and run both a chemical separation plant and a pilot, integral cycle plant: two centres were built, at Trisaia in the South, and near the Lake Brasimone, on the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines. The Trisaia plant (ITREC) stood for many years as the only one in the world designed to recuperate U-233 from Thorium: in those times it was an original design, but like the PRO, the PCUT was destined to be abandoned during the 1960s. After the stop of the Italian nuclear programs (Section 9) Trisaia became a “nuclear rubbish bin”, when 84 fuel elements from the Elk River American nuclear plant were purchased in 1967, while the U-Th cycle was abandoned worldwide, with the exception of India (64 fuel elements remained in the site, with no more possibility of reprocessing, a paradoxical inheritance).

However all these centres and programs were to leave a heavy inheritance when the whole Italian nuclear program went to e stop!

8. 1962, the nationalization of the electric industry (ENEL) and the Nuclear law

One of the indisputable merits of CNEN’s approach to the nuclear programs was that it involved collaborations with several industrial sectors, giving them a stimulus, and contributing to divide the industrial front opposed to the Nuclear Law. On the other hand, both the development of the nuclear programme and the developments in Europe posed the increasing need of overcoming the fragmentation of the Italian electrical system, both in what concerned production and the unification of the national electric grid, and its connection to the European grid. An important step was the unification of the electric fares (May 1961), which strengthened also the need of extending the grid to all the users, building an Apennine ridge power line, and providing for a national power reserve which could meet the excesses of electricity demand (which private producer could assume the burden of building plants that must be up only in these cases?).

The definition of a Nuclear Law became therefore strictly intertwined with the harshly debated problem of the nationalization of the electric industry.³² This measure was strongly supported by the Socialist party (PSI), and was finally approved by the first centre-left government in December 1962, with the creation of ENEL (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica). It was really an epochal step in Italian history. The Christian Democratic Party, inside which fierce fights for power were underway, accepted nationalization for a definite calculation of power, or a Hobson’s choice. On the other hand, the electric utilities were indemnified with pharaonic amounts of money. The underlying idea was that the industries would use such huge amounts to develop other sectors, and give a tremendous impulse to the Italian economic system: unfortunately, the Italian managers revealed themselves tremendously incapable, and squandered such a richness in the following years.³³ Ippolito himself has correctly remarked that the State could have bought the electrical utilities at a very low cost after the war, whereas it supported their recuperation: in that case the Italian history could have been completely different.³⁴ In 1962, moreover, the electrical industry had already exploited the main benefits from the existing resources, so that nationalization resulted in a big business.

The first centre-left government finally approved in December 1962 the Nuclear Law, already presented since January 1961, which established that the production of nuclear energy was a prerogative of the State, or of societies with prevailing state participation. The second five-year plan (1965-1970) for CNEN had already been approved (October 1962), it confirmed all the previous programs, and provided for the installation until 1970 of 1.000-1.500 MW with the design and construction of 2-4 nuclear plants. The division of duties between the nuclear body and the electricity organization was established. CNEN was assigned – alongside its duties of research, design and development of reactors – the responsibility for monitoring plant safety through its Safety and Protection Management Office (DISP, Direzione Sicurezza e Protezione), which as a matter of fact has made up for the absence in Italy of a Nuclear Safety Agency. While ENEL was put in charge of developing nuclear power within the framework of the national electricity system, entailing decision-making on all aspects of power stations construction. The three nuclear power stations were handed over to ENEL.

At the beginnings of 1963 Ippolito was nominated in the board of directors of ENEL, though the law which had established CNEN did not allow this. This fact was to have important implications in the forthcoming events.

9. The “Ippolito trial” (besides other disquieting events), 1962-64, and the stop to the Italian ambitions of autonomous development

Behind these apparently successful events, however, the political and economic circles, both national and international, were very worried by the Italian possible choices of development, and perceived a great danger for their privileges and business. Starting exactly from 1962 a succession of disquieting events, which could hardly be considered as accidental and not coordinated, systematically eliminated all the most resourceful Italian protagonists and stopped the most advanced experiences, not only the ambitious nuclear programs. One can hardly avoid the impression that the history of Italy met a cross-road, and that the most conservative forces (among which mafia) and the most powerful international interests succeeded in eliminating every chance of progressive development, growth and competitiveness in Italy: in the subsequent decades a lot of “mysteries” and unsolved assassinations, butcheries and attempted coups d’état have blooded the history of the country. In 1974 Pier Paolo Pasolini admonished: “I know … but I have not the evidences”.³⁵ Since the spring of 1972 Pasolini was working on a novel, Petrolio (Oil), which was to be a pitiless and substantiated accusation of (from a witness of the writer Paolo Volponi)³⁶ «the crisis of our republic, with oil in the background as big protagonist … our sufferings, our immaturities, our weaknesses, besides the conditions of subjection of our bourgeoisie, of our presumptuous neocapitalism».  When Pasolini was murdered, in 1975, the novel was still in the state of a blotter, which was published in 1992 with a white cover:³⁷ there was moreover the unsolved mystery of the manuscript of one chapter which disappeared!

Already in 1960 there had been an attempt of fascist revival with the Tambroni cabinet and subsequent bloody street reactions. It has been proved that among the political and financial supporters of the Tambroni cabinet there was a part of the private electrical industry, decided to stop at any cost the discussion that had started in the Parliament on the law of nationalization of the electric industry: it has been alluded to “black funds”, and Giorgio Valerio’s involvement.

On October 27, 1962, Enrico Mattei – the unscrupulous and controversial oil bargainer with the Arab countries, circumventing the “Seven Sisters” – died in a crash of his personal aircraft, whose cause has never been clarified, but was almost certainly an attempt upon his life.38

Just a couple of months before, August 11, in the mid of vacations, the influential Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera had published a note by the already mentioned President of the Socialist Democratic Party (PSDI), Giuseppe Saragat, with the title: “Electricity and nuclear energy: dilapidations denounced by Saragat”: this ambiguous individual, strongly linked with the American circles, affirmed that ENEL was a good company, while CNEN’s General Secretary, Ippolito, administered in a quite questionable way the funds from the State; and running the nuclear plants was absolutely uneconomic in comparison with traditional plants. This preliminary attack was therefore against nuclear energy, and Ippolito, who was its most combative supporter.

It is impossible, and out of place here, to enter into details on this affair, which has still many obscure aspects, traceable in the substance to fights for power, mainly inside the majority Christian Democratic party.³⁹ Its substance however is very clear: the final aim was to stop, trough the person of Ippolito, the Italian nuclear programs and projects! In Italy bureaucracy has always been extremely complicated, and difficult to respect in any detail: in any case, no matter how illicit could have been Ippolito’s administration, this could not have justified the stop of the nuclear programs (for such a kind of irregularities, the majority of the Italian ruling class should be in jail). However, this was precisely what happened!

There was a commission of inquiry, and a penal (and somewhat unclear) case against Ippolito, who was sentenced to an (unanimously acknowledged exaggerated) penalty of 11- years jail. He was the sacrificial lamb, the politicians who formally had to direct CNEN and authorize Ippolito’s expenditures were not even mentioned. The Italian scientific community was in its majority sympathetic with Ippolito: Edorado Amaldi, the most influential, publicly attacked Saragat; a distinguished scientist as the geneticist Adriano Buzzati-Traverso spoke in the weekly L’Espresso of “a new witch-hunt ongoing in Italy”. But all that was irrelevant: the problem was a political one.

Subsequently Saragat was elected as President of the Republic. In later years Ippolito was rehabilitated, “pardoned” by Saragat, end even bestowed “for his scientific merits”, and with the Cross “for merits” of the Republic. But in the meantime the Italian nuclear projects had underwent a sudden stop.

Actually, the Ippolito and Mattei cases were not isolated. In 1962 Domenico Marotta, although already retired, was denounced for administrative irregularities:⁴⁰ he had been an eminent chemist and manager, and as a Director of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità brought the Institute to reach a high international level (in which two Nobel Laureates worked, Ernst Boris Chain and Daniel Bovet).

One more very meaningful case was that of the Olivetti utility, which had reached a world leader level in electronic computers, pioneereing the personal computer with the model “Olivetti-101”: in fact, in 1964 the “Group of Control” of the firm – composed by Fiat, Pirelli and two public banks – decided to transfer, with total indifference on the part of the Government, the Electronic Division to General Electric! Even here there had been in 1961 a “death” in a car “accident” of the outstanding engineer Mario Tchou, director of the Olivetti laboratory.

As a matter of fact, these events marked the beginning of a sharp decline of the Italian post-war aspirations and the ambitions of an advanced scientific and technical development, however it was barely taking shape among deep contradictions. Throughout the 1960s Italy got the green light to advanced research in the field of high-energy physics and accelerators, but was for long cut off from more applied fields, such as solid-state physics and nuclear reactors.41

10. The fourth nuclear plant

The developments of the inquiry on Ippolito and his trial produced a deep bewilderment in the world of the Italian scientific research, and a strong dejection among CNEN’s staff, who felt itself under indictment. Ippolito represented efficiency, fight against bureaucracy, and had become a centrepiece of the whole of Italian research, which unanimously sided with him. The report of the inquiry committee of the Ministry of October 1963 was perceived as an attack against the technical scientific Italian culture. Anyway it marked the final end of the Italian nuclear ambitions.⁴²

An immediate consequence was a stiffening of the administrative procedures, and a slowdown of CNEN’s activities. The new Moro government (December 1963) speeded up the funding to CNEN. But a report issued by Ministry of Industry Giuseppe Medici on the nuclear issues (June 1964: Medici 1964) concluded that the two “pilot experiences” (PRO and PCUT) had not kept their promises (but, as we have remarked, all five failed). A technical committee led by Mario Silvestri (from CISE) curtailed CNEN’s activities, closing a number of programs (that Silvestri had opposed in previous years). In new CNEN’s steering committee, appointed in 1965, Carlo Salvetti was designated as Deputy Chairman, and Angelini was the sole confirmed from the previous committee. Nevertheless the electrical consumptions in the country were growing, and in 1966 both Salvetti and Angelini foresaw a renewed nuclear power station building programme.

Anyway, ENEL acquired the property of the nuclear plants, absorbing a large part of its technical staff. The flag of nuclear energy was assumed by the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Unions: the PCI engaged Ippolito, but it had not clear ideas on nuclear matters, like the majority of the political class.

In any case the second five-years plan had become outdated, since nuclear technology had deeply evolved since the prototype reactors.

In 1967 ENEL decided to build a fourth Italian nuclear plant, defined the technical specifications, and called for tenders, receiving several bids (PWR, BWR, Gas, and Candu reactors), from American, British, and other European utilities. There were political pressures and compromises. The “American party” prevailed against a European choice. Finally in 1969 an 840 MW, BWR reactor was chosen, from General Electric and Ansaldo Meccanico Nucleare: the reactor actually was a somewhat hybrid, transition model between nuclear power plant generation I and II. The PCI was substantially left as a sop the “swindle” of Cirene.

Meanwhile, ENEL began to plan a fifth power plant, setting in 1968 the procedures for its construction. However, on the one hand in 1969 safety regulations for new nuclear plant construction and operation were tightened in the US, with substantial growth of costs. On the other hand, ENEL had to cope with growing financial difficulties (it inherited the burden of paying the compensations to the electric utilities, without receiving adequate financing): the Public Accounting Office expressed the opinion that its debt should not be allowed to grow any further. Funds were insufficient to order nuclear power plants.

The construction of the fourth plant began at Caorso (Northern Italy) in 1970, by a consortium ENEL-Ansaldo Nucleare-GETSCO (General Electric Technical Services Company). Works should have been finished in 1975, but they suffered delays and cost increase: Caorso’s first connection to the grid happened in 1978 and commercial operation began in 1981.

In 1971 a law of rearrangement of CNEN was approved, but its application was delayed. In December 1971 procedures began for ordering a fifth power plant with a power capacity between 800 and 1.000 MW, and a call for tenders started in December 1972.

11. The 1973 oil crisis and the “scandal of oil”. Troubled path of the Italian nuclear projects, the Energetic National Programs (PEN), and the growth of popular and environmentalist opposition, until the Three Mile Island accident

The 1973 oil crisis subverted all the concepts and world forecasts on energy resources, production, and consumption.

In Italy, at the beginning of 1974 some magistrates investigating on the cornering of oil during the Kippur war, found burning oil-managers documents, compromising all the Italian political parties (except PCI), ENEL’s managers, ministers, for illegal procedures and subventions in favour of the oil industry.⁴³ As it often happens in our country, in spite of corruptions for billions of Italian Lire (US $ millions), at the end no legal consequence impinged on political representatives and managers.

The scandal pushed those who had stopped nuclear energy to re-emerge. In December 1973 ENEL, upon assurances from the government on the adoption of a new legislation, decided to buy not one but two power plants, and in summer 1974 orders were placed for four. In August 1975 the government passed a law that regulated localization procedures, referred to the recently published American “Reactor Safety Study” (known as “Rasmussen Report”), which set a safety zone of 16 km radius around nuclear plants. On the basis of this law, ENEL proposed to place the four plants in Central Italy, two in Lazio (it would have subsequently been in Montalto di Castro, see below) and two in Molise.⁴⁴

After oil prices suffered a further hike, CNEN submitted, and CIPE (Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica) in December 1975 approved, a National Energy Plan (PEN) foreseeing different future scenarios for the energy demand in Italy, and for electric energy the installation in the period 1983-85 of a nuclear power of 13.000-19.000 MW (up to 20 power stations), and further plants for a total nuclear power between 46.100 and 62.100 MW by 1990.

In 1976 the study of environmental impact was presented for the localization of 2.000 MW nuclear power at Montalto di Castro (Maremma).

In the meantime, a new factor was radically changing the situation with respect to the previous decade, since the Italian population became increasingly conscious and sensitive towards the problems of health and the environment, as well as the dangers of nuclear energy. On the first aspect, the worker’s struggles in defence of health in the factories, which started during the “Hot Autumn” of 1969, extended to the population, anticipating the environmentalist movement. On the second aspect, in the late 1970s the first big nuclear accidents began to shake the previous absolute (and substantially uncritical) confidence in the safety of this technology, and to increase the consciousness of the extreme seriousness of its potential consequences. As a matter on fact, strong oppositions towards nuclear energy began to grow among the populations concerned with possible localizations of nuclear sites, feeding the birth of popular committees, environmentalist associations, besides opposition from some minority political forces, and even local administrations. The role of “popular experts” began to emerge, and they were involved in animated public debates with technicians of the electric industry or nuclear experts.⁴⁵

Big demonstrations took place at Montalto di Castro, Viadana, Suzzara, San Benedetto Po (in Lombardy, when the localization of nuclear plants was proposed there). The associations WWF and “Italia Nostra” collaborated, produced documents, and summoned meetings and debates;⁴⁶ the Lombardy Region appointed a Commission of study on nuclear plants, and turned to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità for advice. In these harsh debates, one should take into account the very peculiar structure of the Italian territory, with many mountains and few flat lands, a high density of population and of towns.

However, the majority of the political forces and the unions were strongly in favour of nuclear energy, including the majority of the Communist Party and the left-wing Union CGIL. Anyway, in response to these movements the political debate grew: the Commission of Industry of the Parliament held a fact-finding inquiry, which confirmed the government’s focus on nuclear power (April 1977), and a Parliamentary debate took place.

 The third Andreotti cabinet (which included the PCI) called for an immediate start to work on power stations, and the Ministry of Industry, Donat-Cattin, issued an ultimatum to the Regions so that they indicated the sites for the construction of 20 nuclear plants. ENEL sent out calls for submission of technical bids for a further eight 1.000 MW units.

In December 1977 CIPE adopted a revised PEN, providing for the immediate construction of “only” 12-13 nuclear plants, and postponing the remaining 8 after 1985 (the provisions of PEN for future electric energy needs would later come out as exaggerated, it was en “electric” rather than an “energy” plan,  several reported data were wrong, or inconsistent). In response to this, the popular protests and marches grew even more. The more so when Prodi, Ministry of Industry in the 4^th Andreotti cabinet, on 19 February 1979 authorized the construction of the nuclear plant in Montalto di Castro: just before the Three Mile Island accident, on 28 March 1979! In the same days the film “Chinese Syndrome”, with Jane Fonda, came out. In the meanwhile, in August 1978 the Garigliano nuclear plant had been definitely shut down after several accidents. One must remark that by the late 1970s the construction time of a power plant was increasing, and nuclear industry development was experiencing a general slowdown.

When the subsequent 5^th Andreotti cabinet fell down, the political elections were precede by a huge national protest in Rome on 19 May 1979.

One might ask who should have paid for these gigantic projects. The funds should be anticipated, at an high rate, by the American Export Import Bank, and in his 1977 visit in the US Andreotti got the support of the Monetary Fund, offering both political (no access of PCI to government) and economic (unpopular measures) guarantees. The Italian industrial (private and public) groups were fighting for the different patents (Westinghouse’s PWR, General Electric’s BWR, Babcock and Wilson’s PWR, and Canadian Candu). However, the Italian industry had reached a certain development: a 1978 Confindustria (Italian Industrial Federation) document ascertained that in 1977 and early 1978, Italian electromechanics companies won more than 40% of all international electricity power station calls for tenders. By the end of the 1970s Italy’s nuclear industry had acquired a lasting configuration, in which ENI (Fabbricazioni Nucleari) focused on fuel-related provisioning, and IRI-Finmeccanica (AMN) was responsible for building plants under license from General Electric.

Moreover, since 1973 a challenging and expensive international collaboration began, when ENEL entered with a 30 % participation in a joint venture with French EDF and German RWE to build “fast” breeder reactors47 (NERSA, Nucléaire Européenne à Neutron Rapid S.A.). An Italian contribution to this program was to be the construction, at the Centre of Brasimone, of an experimental reactor for carrying out tests on fuel elements for fast reactors (PEC, Prova Elementi Combustibile).48 In addition, Italy acquired a 25 % participation in the French gas diffusion enrichment plant Eurodif. Moreover in 1976 the silly project was elaborated of a second enrichment plant to be built in Italy, Coredif, fuelled by four nuclear plants of 1.000 MW each! (Four times the total Italian nuclear power, including the not yet operative Caorso plant). Fond ambitions went back, with the typical Italian style of improvisations and contradictions. Consider that France was developing its Force de Frappe, and had a strong need of plutonium and highly enriched uranium: nothing similar was happening, thankfully, in Italy!

As for the the big oil industry, it was by no means weakened after the 1973 oil crisis: in fact the “Seven Sister” were increasingly investing in the nuclear sector. The crisis itself had been piloted from New York, in order to make nuclear energy and American oil competitive.

12. The Eighties: feverish sequence of Committees, inquiries, Governmental decisions, movements and protests, until the show dawn.

The sequence of the events became increasingly feverish and excited, and the nuclear problem blew up as one of the hottest in the Italian context.

The main bottleneck in the implementation of the Italian nuclear programs concerned the localization of the power plants, which was not ENEL’s responsibility. The choice was complicated by strong local oppositions.⁴⁹ While the nuclear program had broad cross-party support, even many local party exponents opposed the localization of a plant in their area.

The situation grew worse after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. In the US it was proposed to authorize the localization of nuclear plants farther from residential areas, to provide emergency plans and an evacuation radius of the population in case of accidents to 30-40 km. In almost all the Italian territory tens of thousands people should be evacuated!

In Italy, on the institutional side, in June 1979 the results of a fact-finding special ecological commission from the Senate got a majority of favourable opinions, with the relevant exceptions of WWF, “Italia Nostra”, and Prof. Mario Pavan of the University of Pavia. In December the new Ministry of Industry, Antonio Bisaglia, appointed a Commission on nuclear safety, which approved a document denouncing the deficiency of the Italian safety rules: but the evaluation was considered week by the three environmentalist representatives, who presented a minority report.

PEN was successively revised in 1980 and 1981, providing for the construction of nuclear plants for at least 6.000 MW (indicating the Regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Tuscany, Campania, Puglia, and Sicily). The plan introduced the “standard plant” concept, dubbed “Unified Nuclear Project” (PUN), based on the Westinghouse pressurized water technology (a contradiction with the previous choice of General Electric boiling water technology for the Caorso, and the Montalto plants). The allocation of responsibilities was to ENEL for commissioning and systems architecture, CNEN (ENEA, see below) as the monitoring authority, AGIP Nucleare for fuel supply, and Italy’s private nuclear companies (through a consortium led by AMN as the “main contractor”) for the supply of plant systems and components.

This was to be Italy’s last serious attempt of nuclear planning. During the years 1981-1983 popular opposition against nuclear power grew further, supported also by decisions of several municipalities. Trying to circumvent these oppositions, the way out of economic incentives was tried, with a law of 1983, to those municipalities which had accepted nuclear and thermoelectric plants in their territory (besides nuclear, also coal was pushed by the various PENs). It became clear that out of the four power stations ordered under ENEL’s nuclear program, only the Montalto site had the realistic chance of being completed: construction work continued at an exceedingly low pace. In these same years Italy had to reduce from 25 to 16,5 % its participation in the Eurodif enrichment plant, and to undersell a part of the enriched uranium it had already acquired, following the down-sizing of the nuclear ambitions.

In the meantime, in 1982 CNEN acquired the new name ENEA, National Authority for nuclear and Alternative Energies (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia nucleare e le Energie Alternative), with a few real changes, but a new research section on renewable energies: although the new 1985 PEN confirmed 12.000 MW of nuclear power.

ENEA expressed its positive opinion for the suitability of the sites of Viadana and San Benedetto Po, and ENEL begun the geological tests. Anti-nuclear manifestations, clashes with the police, and arrests followed. Two municipal popular referendums were held, at Viadana (1984, 91 % votes against) and San Benedetto Po (1985, 89 % against). In 1985 there was a big march in Rome.

It must be remarked that the anti-nuclear movement was reinforced by the “Euromissiles” crisis (the “Atomic Clock” of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was put at barely 3 minutes from Midnight! The debate on “nuclear winter” grew, the film “The Day After” further impressed the public), and by the opposition to the deployment of Cruise nuclear missiles in Comiso, Sicily, to balance the planned deployment of SS-20 missiles in the European East States.

13. The last acts of the “comedy”

We arrive to the penultimate act, ironically only 36 days before the Chernobyl accident! On 20 March 1986 CIPE approved the 4^th PEN (if the progressive number makes sense), providing only for the construction of the 2.000 MW plant at Montalto di Castro, plus 2.000 MW more at Trino Vercellese, in Piedmont (never begun), and the localization until 1986 of two more plants of 2.000 MW each, respectively in Lombardy and Puglia; in addition it foresaw the acquisition of 400 MW from the 1.200 MW fast reactor Superphénix under construction in France, a very unfortunate project, for which the Italian taxpayers have paid out 30 % for two decades (to the French government and military the project provided the management of the plutonium cycle, and the supply of plutonium during the construction of the Force de Frappe).

On April 9-13, 1986 the PCI held its XVII^th congress, in which an anti-nuclear motion was presented and got almost 50 % of votes.

Barely two weeks later, on 26 April 1986 the Chernobyl accident happened. It raised a deep impression and a huge worry for the behaviour of the “Chernobyl cloud”, and the public debate and polemic revived. Local and national manifestations (Rome, 10 May) proliferated. In July the gathering of signatures for a national referendum began. In October, after a huge manifestation at Montalto di Castro, the Craxi cabinet decided the stop to the building site, and called for a big Conference on Energy, which was held in February 1987, without any important result.

The referendum took place on 8-9 November 1987, and was the prologue of the last act of the Italian nuclear “comedy”. The campaign was harshly fought by the movements and their exponents against the large majority of the scientific and technical milieus, which kept the firm faith in science and technology. Since the Italian law formally allows only for questions concerning the abolition of specific laws or regulations, the referendum formally could not decide the shut-down of the Italian nuclear programs. The questions in fact concerned the abrogation of: (1) the prerogative of CIPE to decide the localization of nuclear plants, when the interested municipalities did not decide; (2) the economic compensation to the municipalities which hosted nuclear or coal plants; and (3) the possibility for ENEL to participate in international nuclear programs. Almost 80 % of the votes in favour evidenced however, a clear popular will (though the Chernobyl accident undoubtedly played a role). The collaboration to Superphénix was immediately suspended, and the project of the PEC abandoned.

Here the last act intervened. In the aftermath of the referendum the Government (the first Goria cabinet) suspended the project of the Trino plant, shut the Latina plant, and started verifications on the safety of the Caorso plant, and the feasibility of the Montalto di Castro plant under construction (for the non-nuclear parts).

In any case, the final decisions were Solomonic, as it happens in Italy (one can even suspect that the leading political class sized the moment, being conscious of the insurmountable obstacles met by the nuclear programs). In fact, in the subsequent years all the Italian nuclear plants were closed, almost every activity in the field of nuclear energy were dismantled, reconverting competencies and agencies to other fields, but leaving a heavy and expensive (although relatively limited) inheritance: four nuclear plants to decommission, an unsafe system of radioactive waste “temporary” storages, the majority of the fuels rods still stored in the deactivation pools, often in precarious conditions (slowly transferred to France for reprocessing).50

A bungled attempt by one of the Silvio Berlusconi governments in 2003 to place a national storage for radioactive wastes at Scanzano Ionico (Basilicata, South Italy), imposing it without any public consultation nor information, and declaring a national radioactive emergency, was stopped by a strong uprising of local populations: the national storage is still waiting, while the nuclear emergency was never revoked, and quickly forgotten.

14. “Sometimes they come back”: the short-lived attempt of a nuclear revival, 25 years later

Anybody would hardly have imagined a revival of nuclear ambitions more than 20 years later, “sprung from the hat” after the political elections of April 2008, won by Silvio Berlusconi. In brief, the purchase of four (not yet tested) EPR reactors from French EDF was programmed, negotiations began, a (decidedly nuclear-oriented) National Safety Authority was offhandedly established. In 2010 the IDV party (Italia dei Valori) proposed a national referendum in order to stop these programs. The interest of the Italian population towards the nuclear issue was very dubious, but the consultation was called for 11-12 June 2011, together with two more referendums for the nationalization of water services, which were much more felt by population. Once more, in the community of the physicists and the technicians the faith in nuclear technology prevailed, although weaker than 24 years before (and even more sceptical in other scientific milieus). The Democratic Party this time pronounced itself in favour of the stop of the nuclear programs (however “tepidly” and contradictorily, since it was instead against the nationalization of water services). In the meanwhile, on 13 March 2012, the Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster happened. This made it easier to reach the quorum (required in the Italian national referendums), and around 95% of the voters approved the referendum questions, calling the halt of the nuclear revival. Once more the political decisions were Solomonic, the Safety Agency, which should be radically transformed, was instead dissolved (while the popular will against privatization of water services were disregarded).

Italy is still left with almost all the, modest but deteriorating and worrying, problems inherited by its nuclear programs unsolved, entrusted to a State joint-stock company, SOGIN (Società Gestione Impianti Nucleari), involved in several scandals. These problems still weigh for around 300-400 million Euros yearly in the bills of the Italian consumers. Only today, the program of a national storage for radioactive wastes is underway, although while we are writing the acceptance by local populations of the localization that will be proposed lies heavy on it.

List of acronyms

AEA, Atomic Energy Agency (UK)

AEC, Atomic Energy Commission (USA)

AGIP, Aszienda Generale Italiana Petroli

BIRS, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

CAMEN, Centro Applicazioni Militari Energia Nucleare

CEA, “Commissariat pour l’Energie Atomiqie” (France)

CEE, Comunità Economica Europea

CIPE,  Comitato Interministeriale per la Programmazione Economica

CISAM, Centro Inter-servizi Studi e Applicazioni Militari

CISE,  Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze

CNR,  Comitato Nazionale per le Ricerche

CNRN, Comitato Nazionale per le Ricerche Nucleari

DC (party), Democrazia Cristiana

DISP, Direzione Sicurezza e Protezione

EDF, “Electricité de France” (France)

ENEA, Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare

ENEL, Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica

ENI, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi

ENSI, Energia Nucleare Sud Italia

EUREX, Enriched Uranium Extraction

GETSCO, General Electric Technical Services Company

IAEA, Internationl Atomic Energy Agency

IDV (party), Italia Dei Valori

IRI, Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale

ITREC, Impianto di Trattamento e Rifabbricazione Elementi di Combustibile

NERSA, Nucléaire Européenne à Neutron Rapid S.A.

NPT, Non-Proliferation Treaty

OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PCUT, Progetto Ciclo Uraio Torio

PEC, Prova Elementi Combustibile

PCI (party), Partito Comunista Italiano

PRO, Progetto Reattore Organico

PSDI (party), Partito SocialDemocratico Italiano

PUN, Unified Nuclear Project

SELNI, Società Elettronucleare Italiana

SIMEA, Società Italiana Meridionale per l’Energia Atomica

SENN, Società ElettroNucleare Nazionale

SOGIN, Società Gestione Impianti Nucleari

SORIN,  Società Ricerca Impianti Nucleari

Notes

1. The authors have independently presented in the past reconstructions of the history of the Italian nuclear programs: Renzetti, “Breve Storia delle Vicende Energetiche etc.”, and “Breve Storia delle Vicende Energetiche Italiane dal dopoguerra al Tramonto della Scelta Nucleare”; Baracca and Ferrari, SCRAM ovvero la Fine del Nucleare (Chapter 4).

2. General references are: Battimelli et al., L’Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare; Paoloni, Energia, ambiente, innovazione: dal Cnrn all’Enea; Paoloni, Il Nucleare in Italia – Nuclear Power in Italy; Pirzio, Energia e Politica; Renzetti, L’Energia; Di Nucci,  Between myth and reality.

3. See for instance: De Maria, Fermi; Battimelli et al.,  L’Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare.

4. It is significant that in these extremely difficult conditions a fundamental experiment was carried out, and finished just after the end of the war, by Marcello Conversi, Ettore Pancini and Oreste Piccioni, which showed that the “mesotron” discovered in the Cosmic rays was not the Yukawa meson (See e.g. Conversi, 1988).

5. Amaldi, “Gli anni della ricostruzione”.

6. See for instance: Kuznick, “Japan’s nuclear history in perspective: atoms for war and peace”; Kanari, “U.S. used to bolster support for nuclear power”. Indeed Japan started his nuclear research program as early as 1954, barely 9 years after the nuclear bombings (and in spite of the showering of the fishing boat Lucky Dragon just in the same year with radioactive fallout from the US hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll!). In 1955 the Atomic Energy Basic Law was passed, strictly limiting the use of nuclear technology to peaceful uses, although there are evidences of the parallel development of military programs. See: Joseph Trento, United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium, 09/04/2012, http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html.

7.  See for instance: Castronovo, L’Industria Italiana dall’Ottocento a Oggi; Pinzani, L’Italia Repubblicana.

8.  Pirzio, Energia e Politica; Castronovo, Storia dell’Industria Eletterica in Italia.

9.  Di Pasquantonio, La Nazionalizzazione dell’Industria Elettrica; Speroni, Il Romanzo della Confindustria.

10. Galli, La Sfida Perduta.

11. Indeed, Fascism showed also this apparently contradictory face, a strong intervention of State into economy, which anticipated a relevant feature of successive capitalism.

12.  Amaldi, “Gli anni della ricostruzione”.

13.  Paoloni, Il Nucleare in Italia – Nuclear Power in Italy.

14.  Battimelli et al., L’Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, pp. 41-72.

15.  Nuti, La Scelta Nucleare, pp. 54-63.

16.  Nuti, op. Cit., Chapter 3; Renzetti, “Breve Storia delle Vicende Energetiche etc.”.

17. Paoloni, Energia, Ambiente, Innovazione: dal Cnrn all’Enea.

18. Ippolito and Simen, La Questione Energetica. Dieci Anni Perduti 1963-1973.

19. Research nuclear reactors are primarily used as neutron sources, typically for the production of radioisotopes for medical or industrial use. Power reactors are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion. Research reactors are simpler than power reactors, operate at lower temperatures, and need far less fuel, although often with a higher enrichment, typically up to 20% U-235.

20. Renzetti, “Breve Storia delle Vicende Energetiche Italiane dal dopoguerra al Tramonto della Scelta Nucleare”.

21. Nuti, La Scelta Nucleare, Chapter 4.

22. Vaglini, Il Nucleare a Pisa; and “Quando a San Piero a Grado c’era un reattore”.

23. Core immersed in an open pool of water, which acts at the same time as neutron moderator, cooling agent and radiation shield.

24. The early nuclear power reactors built in the world were: 1954 Obninsk, USSR; 1956 Calder Hall, UK; 1957 Shippingport, US; 1960 France.

25.  Ippolito and Simen, La Questione Energetica. Dieci Anni Perduti 1963-1973.

26.  Rigano,  “La Banca d’Italia e il progetto ENSI”.

27.  Silvestri Il Costo della Menzogna, p. 199.

28. Paoloni, Energia, Ambiente, Innovazione: dal Cnrn all’Enea.

29. Angelini et al., “The development of an integrated nuclear fuel-cycle industry to meet the needs of the Italian nuclear power programme”; Bullio et al., “Italian activities in uranium enrichment”, Nuclear Power and its Fuel Cycle”.

30. Denton et al., “SOGIN enriched uranium extraction (EUREX) plant spent fuel pool cleaning and decontamination utilizing the Smart Safe solution”. This facility was operated successfully for many years since 1970 and was eventually shutdown consistent with Italy’s suspension of all nuclear operations.

31. Guida alla conoscenza dell’ITREC e del programma PCUT (Guide to the knowledge of ITREC and the PCUT program), 1972, Comitato Nazionale Energia Nucleare, microfiche copy, http://www.iaea.org/inis/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/04/068/4068036.pdf.

32. Zanetti,  Storia dell’Industria Elettrica in Italia. 5 – Gli Sviluppi dell’ENEL, 1963-1990.

33. Scalfari et al.,  Razza Padrona. Storia della Borghesia di Stato.

34.  Ippolito, La questione Energetica, p. 72.

35. Pasolini, “Cos’è questo golpe? Io so”.

36. In http://www.pasolini.net/narrativa_petrolio.htm.

37. Pasolini, Petrolio.

38. During his controversial tenure of ENI, Mattei had made many enemies. Besides trying to break the oligopoly of the “Seven Sisters”, he brokered an oil import deal with the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War over intense protests from NATO and the U.S. in 1959, while supporting independence movements against colonial powers such as Algeria. The US National Security Council described Mattei as an irritation and an obstacle in a classified report from 1958. The French could not forgive him for doing business with the pro-independence movement in Algeria. Responsibility for his death has been attributed to the CIA, to the French extreme-nationalist group, the OAS, and to the Sicilian Mafia. Deep and murky links have been hypothesized between the murders of Mattei, Pasolini, and the journalist Mauro De Mauro (who was inquiring into the murder of the first one, and disappeared in Palermo in 1970): Lo Bianco et al., Profondo Nero. Mattei, De Mauro, Pasolini. Un’unica Pista all’Origine delle Stragi di Stato. In 1995 the process for Mattei’s death was reopened, since new evidences appeared: Claudio Celani, “New proof that Italian industrialist Enrico Mattei was murdered”, EIR, Executive intelligence Review, Volume 22, Number 29, July 21, 1995, p. 56; “New probe, after 27 years, shows Mattei was murdered”, EIR, Executive intelligence Review, Volume 24, Number 49, December 5, 1997, p. 48.

39. Literature is wide: Frankel, Petrolio e Potere; Lerro, Ippolito, Intervista sulla Ricerca Scientifica; Barrese, Un Complotto Nucleare; Puntillo, Felice Ippolito, una Vita per l’Atomo; Curli, Il progetto nucleare italiano (1952-1964).

40. Italian Scientist on Trial For Mishandling Funds, Special to The New York Times, November 6, 1964, http://www.nytimes.com/1964/11/06/italian-scientist-on-trial-for-mishandling-funds.html.

41.  Already since the creation of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva there was a ban to the construction of nuclear reactors, as the French would want (Krige, “Isidor I. Rabi and CERN”; American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Science in Europe, p. 60 ff.).

42. Ippolito and Simen, La Questione Energetica. Dieci Anni Perduti 1963-1973; Ippolito, Politica dell’Energia; Jorio and Pacilio, Energia in Crisi?; Pirzio, Energia e Politica; Lombardi, La Questione dell’Energia Nucleare.

43. Almerighi, Petrolio e Politica; Bull and Rhodes (Eds), Crisis and Transition in Italian Politics, p. 56 ff.

44. For the subsequent period see: Pirzio, Energia e Politica; Lombardi, La Questione dell’Energia Nucleare.

45. A first, undoubtedly not unique, contribution to this aspect has been brought by the authors of this paper in different ways. Renzetti has approached in his early studies the connections between the Italian energy plans during the 1970s and 1980s and the growth of of popular movements and protests. Baracca and Ferrary have presented two contributions from two different and complementary perspectives in a recent conference the Italian nuclear experience.

Baracca has reconstructed, together with some former students (and subsequently professors) of the physics at the university of Florence, how the latter since the year 1975 got interested in the energy and nuclear problems, and performed an original and comprehensive research, publishing as early as 1967 one of the first Italian well documented and rigorous books, eloquently entitled I Nucleodollari (“Nucleodollars”, evokingthe analogy the name “petrodollars”). In fact, they were actively involved as “popular experts” in a lot of the early public debates on the nuclear programs in the “hot” places, see Baracca et al., The Active Role of Students of Physics, and Subsequent Professors, of The University of Florence in the Early Italian Anti-Nuclear Movements, 1975-1987.

In the same conference DEVI AGGIUNGERE REFERENZA ALLA TUA RELAZIONE, E INSERIRLA ANCHE IN BIBLIOGRAFIA, Ferrari has discussed his personal experience in the control activities on nuclear fuel design and fabrication for all the ENEL nuclear power plants, performed from 1968 to 1987. After the 1973 oil shock, Ferrari turned into an antinuke, while continuing to play control activities on ENEL nuclear fuel until 1987 when, after the Chernobyl accident, he decided for a moral objection, making his decision public. POTRESI DARE LA REFERENZA ALLA LETTERA SUL MANIFESTO

46. The following study considers at the beginning the anti-nuclear position of the Italian environmentalism during the 1970s and 1980s, but is mainly focussed on its subsequent institutionalization, and at least partial conversion towards an interest for nuclear power as a carbon free energy source: Standish, “Nuclear power and environmentalism in Italy”.

47. A fast neutron reactor is a category of nuclear reactor in which the fission chain reaction is sustained by fast neutrons. Such a reactor needs no neutron moderator, but must use fuel that is rich in fissile material, i.e. relatively highly enriched uranium or plutonium. Moreover, fast neutrons breed fuel (from fertile material) by producing more fissile material than it consumes.

48. Mangiagalli et al., “Plutonium utilization in fast-breeder and light-water reactors in Italy”. Actually, however, the PEC was borne as an improper project, adjusting the expensive vessel that had been previously built, and then given up, for the PRO. The adaptation forced to reduce form 2 to 1 the test channels. Almost 15 years later it was far from finished yet, while its costs had considerably grown, and the fast reactor program was much more advanced. It was the only Italian direct contribution to the French-German-Italian fast reactors program. The history of this aspect of the Italian nuclear programs does not exist, even since the archive of documents concerning the PEC, in the research centre of Brasimone, is not accessible in a usable form.

49. On this aspect see Nebbia, “La storia del nucleare non depone a suo favore”.

50. See for instance the (still widely valid, if the situation is not even worsened) report from the Rai TV channel, “L’eredità” (The legacy), 6 May 2007,  http://www.rai3.rai.it/dl/Report/puntata/ContentItem-53ed457c-a5f3-4781-a14f-88d6f5084923.html.

Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted towards Prof.  Albert Presas i Puig, of the University “Pompeu Fabra”, Barcelona, who involved them in three international workshops concerning the nuclear programs in Europe, which originated this research: “A Comparative Study of European energy Programs”, 5-6 December 2008; “A Comparative Study of European energy Programs”, 3-4 December 2009; “Going Critical: 70 Years of Nuclear Energy”, 5-7 November, 2012.

We are grateful to Dr. Matteo Gerlini, of the University of Florence, for his initial collaboration to this research, and subsequent discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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