The new head of Italy's constitutional court said Tuesday that he did not believe the institution could block a referendum on nuclear plants proposed for the country.
Court President Alfonso Quaranta's statements follow similar sentiments expressed last week by Italy's top appeals court, according to international media reports. Absent action from the courts, and given scant public support for nuclear energy shown in recent Italian polls, the referendum could scuttle plans for 6,400 megawatts of new nuclear generation proposed in partnership with EDF.
Italy shut down the last of its four reactors in 1990 following a similar referendum held after the Chernobyl accident. It is now the world's largest net importer of electricity, with much of that coming from nuclear plants in France, according to the World Nuclear Association. The country's reliance on imports and domestic generation from fossil fuels have resulted in electricity prices higher than the European Union average, and in 2009 the Italian government adopted legislation that would derive a quarter of the country's power from new nuclear generation by 2030. To do so, Italy's largest utility planned to develop new plants in partnership with France's EDF.
But after the Fukushima Daiichi crisis in Japan, the government put a moratorium on the plans. While it was meant to be temporary, the ruling government's political opposition had proposed a referendum before the March accident that would repeal all of the legislation allowing new plant construction. The referendum survived a challenge in the constitutional court in January and will go before voters on Sunday and Monday.