Italy will build up to ten nuclear power reactors to cover a quarter of the country's energy needs, with the first batch operational by 2018, Italian media reported Thursday.
"Our goal is for nuclear energy to cover 25 percent of our energy needs, which corresponds to between eight and 10 plants built on two to three sites," Italy's economic development minister Claudio Scajola was quoted by newpapers as saying.
The Italian government is conducting a study on where to build the sites.
Italian energy giants Enel and Edison are reportely ready to finance the reactors' construction.
A month after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi returned to power in April, the government said it would begin building nuclear power stations to solve the country's dependence on foreign oil and gas supplies.
The decision reversed a 20-year ban on nuclear power, following the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.
