Background
On 30 September, Law No. 169 of 29 September 2026 containing a “Delegation to the Government on sustainable nuclear energy” (the “Enabling Law”) was published in the Official Gazette. The law was definitively approved on 23 September and will enter into force on 15 October.
The measure is particularly significant not only because it reopens, at the regulatory level, the possibility of producing energy from nuclear sources within the national territory, but also because it entrusts the Government, through dedicated legislative decrees, with the task of setting out a comprehensive regulatory framework for an entire sector.
The following analysis was already published, on 9 October, in the pages of the online newspaperStaffetta Quotidiana.
2. Contents of the delegation
The architecture of the Enabling Law covers the entire life cycle of nuclear energy, from strategic planning through to the decommissioning of plants and the management of radioactive waste.
More specifically, the delegation covers:
the establishment of a national programme for the development of the production and use of energy from sustainable nuclear and fusion sources, as well as the governance rules for the approval, implementation and monitoring of that national programme;
the rules concerning the deactivation and decommissioning of existing nuclear installations and the future use of the related sites;
the rules governing testing, siting, construction, operation and decommissioning of: (a) plants producing energy from sustainable nuclear sources (including for the production of hydrogen and heat); (b) nuclear fuel manufacturing and reprocessing plants; (c) temporary storage facilities for radioactive waste and spent fuel; (d) final disposal facilities for radioactive waste and spent fuel;
the rules governing the use of nuclear energy in the naval and maritime sector;
the introduction of any support measures for the construction of nuclear power plants, as well as measures to promote research and development activities in the fields of nuclear fission and fusion energy, including through forms of incentives;
regulatory governance, reorganising safety, supervisory and control functions and assessing the establishment of an independent administrative authority for nuclear safety.
2. Guiding principles and next steps
Article 3 of the Enabling Law sets out the specific principles and guiding criteria that the Government must follow in implementing the delegation.
The national programme
One of the focal points of the Enabling Law is the national programme for the development of the production and use of nuclear energy.
On this point, the legislative decrees will need to define the criteria and procedures for the approval and implementation of the programme in line with the carbon neutrality objectives to be achieved by 2050.
In this regard, some figures are already contained in the PNIEC (National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan), on the basis of which it is estimated that nuclear energy production could cover between 11% and 22% of national electricity demand by 2050.
Planning and authorisation aspects
The Enabling Law sets out principles of considerable importance with regard to the future development of projects, with a focus on siting and authorisation aspects.
In particular, it provides that:
criteria and procedures be defined for the siting of plants for (i) the production of energy from sustainable nuclear sources; (ii) the manufacturing and reprocessing of nuclear fuel; (iii) the temporary storage of radioactive waste and spent fuel; (iv) the final disposal of radioactive waste and spent fuel (the “Plants”);
the types of plants eligible for authorisation be identified, in compliance with the principle of technological neutrality and on the basis of criteria of maximum sustainability and safety, using the best available nuclear technologies, including modular or advanced technologies;
integrated authorisation procedures under the competence of the MASE (Ministry of Environment and Energy Security) be established, aimed at authorising the construction and operation of the Plants, identifying, in compliance with the principle of loyal cooperation, the cases in which the agreement of the regions concerned, or of the Unified Conference, is required;
the title issued following the authorisation procedure replace every administrative measure, authorisation, concession, licence, clearance and consent, with the exception of environmental assessment measures;
the authorisation titles also constitute a variance to existing planning instruments, where necessary;
works relating to the Plants and their associated infrastructure be deemed to be of public utility, and non-deferrable and urgent, and that the related authorisation title may include, where necessary, the imposition of a constraint preliminary to expropriation;
the authorisation procedures take into account the protection of the landscape and historical-artistic heritage pursuant to Article 9 of the Constitution;
operators to whom the authorisation title is issued provide adequate financial guarantees for the management of the Plant's entire life cycle, including through the establishment of one or more funds dedicated to covering the costs of decommissioning the plants and managing radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel until final dismantlement;
environmental and territorial compensation measures, including of an economic nature, be defined, to be established upon issuance of the authorisation title, at the proponents' expense.
Incentives
The Enabling Law provides that, upon implementation, criteria will be determined for granting any forms of support (i.e., any public contributions or incentives) to operators intending to carry out nuclear activities, also on the basis of the principle of rewarding greater consistency with the national programme.
On this point, the measure does not provide further detail; it will therefore be necessary to await the relevant legislative decrees for more detail on the type, nature and amount of such support measures and their impact on the business plans of market players.
NIMBY
In addition, the Enabling Law sets out certain guiding criteria aimed, essentially, at addressing the NIMBY phenomenon from the outset, seeking to prevent a repeat of what has already occurred in recent years in terms of local opposition to initiatives linked to the spread of renewable energy.
In particular, the law provides for the implementation of an appropriate information campaign for citizens on nuclear energy – with particular reference to its safety and sustainability – as well as targeted information measures for the populations directly affected by the siting of plants, together with consultation of those populations, allocating expenditure of EUR 1.5 million for 2026 and EUR 6 million for 2027.
Next steps
As regards the timeline for the implementation phase, the Government has twelve months from the date of entry into force of the Enabling Law to adopt one or more legislative decrees.
Subsequently, each decree may be supplemented or corrected within the following twenty-four months, following the same procedure.
This is a significant time margin, also intended to allow the regulatory framework to be adapted to the rapid evolution of the relevant technologies.
From a procedural standpoint, the decrees will be adopted on a proposal from the MASE, jointly with a wide range of ministries, following the agreement of the Unified Conference and the opinion of the Council of State.
4. Preliminary considerations
As this is an enabling law, any assessment of the real innovative scope of the reform and its impact on the market can, at this stage, only be preliminary. It will indeed be the legislative decrees that define the essential elements of the new regulatory framework, from authorisation procedures to siting criteria, through to investment support instruments.
From an authorisation standpoint, several principles and guiding criteria echo instruments already tested in the renewables sector and currently governed by Legislative Decree No. 190/2024: a single procedure and an authorisation title with substitutive effect (i.e., the well-known Single Authorisation), siting criteria (i.e., the so-called “suitable areas”), compensation measures and financial guarantees linked to the decommissioning of plants.
The parallel also offers a critical insight. The experience of renewables shows, in fact, that the statutory provision of simplification instruments is not, in itself, sufficient to ensure certain timeframes and efficient procedures.
It will therefore be essential to avoid similar issues recurring in the nuclear sector, where authorisation uncertainty could carry even greater weight given the scale and time horizon of the investments involved.
There is also the issue of territorial governance. The choice to assign to the MASE competence over integrated authorisation procedures will need to be coordinated with the role of the Regions and local authorities, especially with regard to siting decisions.
The specific rules governing agreement mechanisms and the resolution of any disagreements will therefore represent one of the most delicate aspects of the implementing decrees.
It goes without saying that these aspects are also directly linked to the bankability of future initiatives. As also highlighted by the Bank of Italy, the still limited maturity of some of the technologies under consideration is accompanied, in fact, by considerable uncertainty regarding costs and construction timeframes.
In this context, an authorisation framework alone will not be sufficient: certainty of timeframes, regulatory stability, adequate risk allocation and instruments capable of ensuring predictability of revenues will be essential conditions for making investments genuinely financeable.
From this perspective, particular importance will attach to the concrete definition of the support instruments, which the Enabling Law has so far only outlined.
Given the high capital intensity that characterises nuclear investments and the concentration of costs in the initial phase of projects, it will indeed be essential to identify mechanisms capable, on the one hand, of supporting the significant initial CAPEX and, on the other, of ensuring sufficiently stable and predictable cash flows over the long term.
The design of incentives and any revenue stabilisation instruments will therefore be a central element for the bankability of projects and, more generally, for the reform's actual ability to attract private capital.
Ultimately, the return of nuclear power is only at the starting blocks: it will be the choices of the delegated legislator that determine whether the reform remains a mere policy framework or succeeds in translating into a market that is genuinely “sustainable” on every front.
