Four decades after Chernobyl, Italy's nuclear revival debate reaches Basilicata's oil country

Four decades after the Chernobyl disaster turned Italy off nuclear power, the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is moving to revive the technology, the Associated Press reports. Rome has appointed a commissioner for new nuclear and is drafting legislation to enable small modular reactors, a shift driven by energy security concerns and climate targets.

For Basilicata, a southern region of 537,000 people that hosts Italy's largest onshore oil and gas fields in the Val d'Agri, the nuclear debate is not abstract. Extraction revenue has long sustained local budgets and employment, but environmental opposition has grown alongside national pressure to decarbonise. A reopening of the nuclear option could accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels, reshaping the economic calculus for communities that depend on petroleum royalties.

The AP notes a generational divide in Italian attitudes toward nuclear energy: older voters associate it with the 1986 disaster, while younger Italians see it as a low-carbon necessity. That fault line runs through Basilicata as well, where the regional government has wavered between defending oil revenues and exploring renewable alternatives.