Overview
- The Senate gave final approval on Wednesday, Sept. 23, completing the parliamentary process with an 81–51–7 vote and turning the delegation bill into law.
- The law hands the government a 12‑month deadline to write technical decrees and makes the Ispettorato per la Sicurezza Nucleare the central authorising body for future projects.
- It bars large traditional plants and limits new builds to small and advanced modular reactors (SMR/AMR), while allowing municipalities and local consortia to volunteer to host reactors or temporary waste and storage sites.
- An initial funding package was included — €60 million split across 2027–2029 plus smaller sums for 2025 and the current year for public information — but major questions on licensing passporting, contract structures, project bankability and a national waste repository are left to the decrees.
- The move divides politics and civil society: the governing coalition and centrist Azione backed the law, while PD, M5S, Green‑left groups and NGOs criticised its breadth, lack of cost and timing detail, and the unresolved legacy of decommissioning; the minister estimated first commercial plants could appear around 2033–34 as a projection.