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Comment by sph | Hacker News Reader

As an Italian abroad, this came out of the blue and I was not expecting this change of mind, at all. There have been two referendums on nuclear energy in Italy: one just after the disaster of Chernobyl. They tried again decades later, in 2011; just after the disaster of Fukushima. The result was of course overwhelmingly negative both times.

This is great news, and will hopefully lower the cost of electricity that we mostly import from France.

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Who's brilliantly dumb idea was it to have the only two referendums ever also immediately after a disaster? That is what you'd do if you want an overwhelmingly biased referendum playing off people's rash and short term panic based decision making.

> Who's brilliantly dumb idea was it to have the only two referendums ever also immediately after a disaster?

Well-timed populists.

> Well-timed populists.

not really. The referendum was planned long before Fukushima, but then Fukushima happened at just the right time, reminding voters just in time to vote against nuclear.

I stand corrected. They indeed started collecting signatures for the second referendum in spring 2010.

The second referendum had been planned long before, and then the Fukushima disaster happened, just a couple of weeks before the vote. A stark reminder that nuclear energy is not safe.

By the way, Italy had several nuclear reactors, but they were shut down after the first referendum.

> A stark reminder that nuclear energy is not safe.

For some nebulous and often politically-charged definition of safety.

A bunch of aviation accidents have happened in the last few months. Is flying unsafe?

See, your definition of safety seems to actually be "what feels safe to me". As such, it happens to be exactly opposite to what the data tells us.

The green energy lobby has everything to gain, and it's been working extra to make it a reality. For example, Greenpeace has been fighting nuclear power all over the world.

The anti nuclear lobby was funded by the KGB.

Also the petroleum industry.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2016/07/13/are-f...

Greenpeace has the word "peace" in their name because they are anti-war. They claimed civilian nuclear power was part of a weapons program.

There's people in this very thread enthusiastic about nuclear power because it will help Italy develop nuclear weapons. So hard to argue that they were wrong.

> They claimed civilian nuclear power was part of a weapons program

They are wrong, but who cares? As long as Russia and China have nuclear weapons, disarming Europe isn't going to help anyone. Not to mention now North Korea and pretty soon Iran will have them too.

Arguably, if Germany wasn't so reliant on Russian gas, the war in Ukraine wouldn't have started. The "peace" in Greenpeace is more Orwellian than anything.

Because that's how democracy works. Democracy has no need for rational thought, only feelings and ego matters.

The first one in 1987 was organised by the Radical Party.

The second one was an unfortunate coincidence.

The import of electricity is around 10-15%, a significant amount, but Italy does not MOSTLY rely on imports.

https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produzione_di_energia_elettr...

This says that up to 25% of electricity is imported during peak times, and as of 2016, Italy was the third-largest net importer of electricity after US and Brazil.

Quite the contrary: it literally says that imports are not always proportional to demand. During the day, imports are around 10%, while at night, they rise to 25%... probably because it's much cheaper and more convenient.

15% is bad, that is power for both Sicily and Sardinia combined, dependent on neighbour country

You do know that new built western nuclear power costs €170/MWh. It will in no shape or form lower electricity costs.

Investing in renewables and storage will.

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