Italy plans to spend nearly $3 billion over the next 20 years to dismantle and clean up its four nuclear power plants and create a repository for nuclear waste, the nation’s industry minister said Tuesday. The plan is intended to implement a 1987 referendum in which Italian citizens voted to ban nuclear power. Meanwhile, the leaders of Germany’s Green Party, a junior partner in the ruling government coalition, are pushing a proposal to end the nation’s dependence on nuclear power completely by 2018. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is trying to hammer out a compromise plan that would satisfy the Greens and insulate the government from lawsuits by energy companies.
