National electricity utility ENEL said on Monday that it expected to have its first new nuclear power plant up and running by July 2020. ENEL explained that this target date was a ''realistic objective'' and that the other plants it planned to build with French partner EdF would open after intervals of 18 months from July 2020 for a total of four reactors in three plants. The Italian government has promised to adopt the guidelines and criteria for choosing reactor sites by July 2010 and ENEL believes this will allow it to pick its first site by October 2010 with actual construction beginning in July 2015.

Italy abandoned nuclear power in 1987 after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and is now the only leading western power without it. This summer the Italian parliament gave its green light to a return to nuclear power through which Italy hopes to cover 25% of its energy needs in the future. Italian Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said earlier this year that the government hoped construction on the first power plant could begin in 2013 and start producing energy by 2018. Italy and France struck an accord last February to cooperate in the production of nuclear energy using the advanced third-generation European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) technology developed by EdF.

The agreement calls for the building of at least four nuclear reactor plants in Italy, using French technology, and the participation of Italian electricity utility ENEL in the construction of another five plants in France. Last month Italy and the United States signed a five-year agreement for the development of 12 new-generation nuclear power plants in Italy and there is an option to extend the accord another five years. According to ENEL, 40% of Italians are in favor of the concept of building nuclear power plants, but this percentage falls to 17% if the plant is build near where one lives. During a meeting with EdF officials here on Monday, ENEL said that one of the problems in bringing nuclear power back to Italy was the lack of qualified nuclear engineers. This not because Italy was not producing them but because they were being offered lucrative jobs abroad and were employed within there months of receiving their degrees. Because of this, the accord between Italy and the US not only allows for the exchange of know-how and materials, but also qualified personnel.