Partnership aims to boost Italian nuclear education

Tuesday, 16 July 2024

Under the agreement, the partners will pool their respective technical knowledge and expertise in order to jointly develop research, development and innovation activities for the nuclear sector.

In particular, the cooperation agreement provides for joint projects through internships, master's degree and doctoral dissertations, seminars, workshops and other similar initiatives on technical topics of mutual interest. With the aim of improving the exchange of knowledge and know-how, the agreement will also provide for the organisation of meetings and training courses as well as visits for students and their respective employees to Framatome's production sites and plants and the Politecnico di Milano's and Edison's research laboratories.

"This agreement represents another step towards cooperation and research on new nuclear power and - with the support of universities - the development of the necessary expertise for new nuclear power in Italy," said Lorenzo Mottura, EVP Strategy, Innovation, Research & Development and Digital at Edison. "Thanks to this agreement, students at the Politecnico di Milano will benefit from direct access to and exchange with Edison - a leading operator in the Italian energy sector that is actively engaged in the development of new nuclear power in Italy - and Framatome, a European leader in the development and industrialisation of nuclear technology."

"The Politecnico di Milano is a prestigious university that promotes academic excellence in education and in the field of nuclear engineering," added Elisabeth Terrail, Senior Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Framatome. "Thanks to this agreement, students at the Politecnico will be called upon to apply what they have learnt to real projects in support of the existing fleet and the development of nuclear energy in Europe."

Marco Ricotti, Professor of Nuclear Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano said: "The Politecnico di Milano, the first university in Italy to engage in university education and research in the nuclear sector since the 1950s, confirms and increases its historical strength and attractiveness, both towards the new generations - tripling the number of students enrolled in this field in the last five years - and towards industrial stakeholders, committed to evaluating and developing new nuclear technologies, which are fundamental to contributing to the solution of the energy problem, in terms of environmental sustainability, strategic safety, and socio-economic impact."

Italy operated a total of four nuclear power plants starting in the early 1960s but decided to phase out nuclear power in a referendum that followed the 1986 Chernobyl accident. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990.

In late March 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the Italian government approved a moratorium of at least one year on construction of nuclear power plants in the country, which had been looking to restart its long-abandoned nuclear programme.

In May last year, the Italian Parliament approved a motion to urge the government to consider incorporating nuclear power into the country's energy mix. In September, the first meeting was held of the National Platform for a Sustainable Nuclear, set up by the government to define a time frame for the possible resumption of nuclear energy in Italy and identify opportunities for the country's industrial chain already operating in the sector. It is planned to develop guidelines within nine months.

Italy's government included potential new nuclear capacity in its National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, which was submitted to the European Commission on 1 July.

Speaking the following day at the Global Energy Transition Congress in Milan, Italy's Minister for Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, said: We expect to be able to reach about 8 GW from nuclear power by 2050, covering more than 10% of the nation's electricity demand. This percentage may increase to over 20-22% by fully exploiting the potential of nuclear power in our country."