Nearly forty years after the Chornobyl disaster pushed Italy to abandon atomic energy, the country’s Senate gave final approval this week to legislation that reopens the door to nuclear power. The bill passed 81 votes to 51, with seven abstentions, clearing the upper house after already passing the lower Chamber of Deputies.
The vote marks a reversal of a policy which passed by popular vote twice, first in a 1987 referendum following Chornobyl, and again after Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami which claimed the lives of approximately 20,000 people.