A conference was organised by Greenpeace, Legambiente and WWF in Rome on 19 April to mark 20 years since the Chernobyl tragedy. It aimed to examine the real costs and the current situation of nuclear energy.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) nuclear energy contributes only 6.5% of primary energy and it is forecast to fall to 4.5% by the year 2030.
Nuclear energy is the most costly energy source and it needs the most support from the State.

According to the United States Department of Energy (DOE) the cost of 1 KWh of electrical energy costs 6.13cent/$ from gas 4.96 cent/$, from coal 5.34 cent/$, from wind power 5.05 cent/$.
Similar results are presented by researchers at Chicago University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These figures are underestimates because they do not include the costs of decommissioning the plant and the long term management of the waste products.

A false myth about nuclear energy is the abundance of uranium in nature. It is true that its presence is widespread, but it is normally found in infinitesimal quantities, so tiny as to not be practically usable. Reserves of uranium that can be extracted commercially could last for a period of about a century if consumption levels are kept at those for 2000. If we were to substitute nuclear fuel for all the fossil fuel to produce electricity that would need thousands of nuclear power stations and the consequent using up of reserves of uranium in just a few years.
And finally, not even nuclear power is exempt from carbon dioxide emissions. Just think of the fossil energy needed to construct the power stations, to extract, transport and enrich the uranium, to manage the waste products, and to dismantle the power stations at the end of their useful lives. Investing in nuclear power means wasting public and private resources whilst damaging the development of renewable sources and hindering technologies that increase energy efficiency.

But some people never stop thinking about it. Those with nostalgia for Chernobyl, never give up. Among these are Scaroni’s Enel that bought Slovenske Elektrarne and thus finally came back to nuclear when the second reactor at Mochovce was made operational.

From 1990 to 2005, the Austrians were trying to close down the first reactor and they even vetoed the entry of Slovakia into the European Union (Mochovce is only 100 km from Vienna).

The Austrian government installed scores of wind turbines on the border with Slovakia very visible to the naked eye, even as a sign of protest.

I propose that the Italian government installs a few wind turbines in front of the Rome HQ of Enel. Perhaps they have never seen any.