Energy groups EDF and Enel said on Monday they were joining up to develop third-generation nuclear reactors for Italy as Italian authorities prepare to end a nuclear power moratorium in place since 1987.
France's EDF and Italy's Enel "announced today the creation of the equal basis joint venture 'Sviluppo Nucleare Italia Srl'," they said in a statement.
The new venture is "aimed at developing the feasibility studies for the construction of at least 4 advanced third generation EPR units," they said, referring to European Pressurised Reactors.
"Once the studies have been completed and the necessary investment decision taken, individual companies will be instituted to build, own and operate each of the EPR power plant," they added.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government announced shortly after taking office in May 2008 that it would begin building nuclear power stations to solve the country's dependence on foreign oil and gas supplies.
The ban on nuclear power followed a 1987 referendum in the aftermath of the Soviet nuclear disaster in Chernobyl a year earlier. Italy's first nuclear plants since the ban are scheduled to be operational by 2018
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