OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2008. During a meeting with Director General of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation Sergey Kiriyenko, Minister of Economic Development of Italy Claudio Scajola suggested setting up an Italian-Russian working group on nuclear energy.

Scajola said that since the Prime Minister of Italy had suggested restoring nuclear power industry in Italy, it would be expedient to set up a relevant working group between Rosatom and the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy.

Italy is interested in the reactors of the third generation and even more advanced technologies.

The agreement for the establishment of the working group is supposed to be signed during an inter-governmental meeting in Russia in Oct 2008, Kiriyenko said after the meeting.

“Until now Russian and Italian nuclear workers have cooperated exclusively under projects in third countries. Now that the Government of Italy has decided to revive its nuclear industry and the Government of Russia is actively reforming its nuclear sector, we can cooperate in the territories in Russia and Italy. We are ready to supply – if the Italian Government shows interest in something we have — but we are also ready buy,” Kiriyenko said.

He said that Rosatom was ready to involve Italian companies in projects in Russia and third countries. “Today, nuclear energy is developing at such a large scale that there will be enough work for all,” Kiriyenko said.

Scajola said that on Monday he met with Energy Minister of Russia Sergey Shmatko and they decided to intensify Russian-Italian cooperation not only in the gas and energy sectors but also in nuclear power engineering.

The key task of the working group will be analysis of all possible cooperation scenarios. Scajola said that Russia was one of the key players on the nuclear energy market and Italy sought to establish very close cooperation with that country in that field.

Italy is not a newcomer in this field. It already has nuclear power plants. Besides, its Enel company is actively involved in nuclear projects abroad: it has built two NPPs in Romania.

The task of Italy is to raise the share of its NPPs in the total energy production to, at least, 20% in the next 25 years, Scajola said.