Following top-level Russian-Italian talks in Moscow on Nov. 6 between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the pair signed a number of bilateral cooperation documents in the wake of Russian-Italian intergovernmental talks. While the casual observer might think the agreements were primarily devoted to hydrocarbons, the basket of memoranda also covered electricity and, most interestingly, nuclear power.

Russia's state-run nuclear entity Rosatom and Italy's Ministry for Economic Development signed an agreement to establish a working group to design third- and fourth-generation nuclear reactors, and Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said work could begin in 2010.

Italy's renewed interest is significant, resulting in a 180-degree turnaround from earlier national policies. In 1986, in the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster earlier that year, the Italian government began to discuss phasing out the country's existing nuclear power stations at Latina, Garigliano, Trino Vercellese, Caorso and Montalto di Castro. Following a national referendum in November 1987, work on the country's nuclear program was essentially halted, and the following year the government resolved to halt all new nuclear construction and shutter the country's remaining reactors and decommission them, with the work ending in 1990.

Two decades later, Italy is now the only Group of Eight country without its own nuclear power generating facilities and is the world's largest net importer of electricity. Italy now imports 50.3 billion kWh (about 15 percent of its needs) annually. Ironically, most of Italy's electricity, imported from France, is generated by nuclear power. Ultimately, it is the Italian consumer who has been hit in the pocketbook for the country going "green," as the country's high reliance on oil and gas for generating electricity, as well as imports, has resulted in Italy's electricity prices being 45 percent above the European Union's average cost.

Two factors have produced the change in Italian attitudes toward nuclear power -- record-high oil prices and the return to power, in the April 2008 general election, of Silvio Berlusconi, an unabashed proponent of nuclear power, for a third term as prime minister.

In a clear indication of the shift of the Italian consumer's mindset, a public opinion poll in July 2008 found that 54 percent in Italy supported nuclear power while 36 percent opposed it, compared with 82 percent opposing nuclear power in 2007. The poll also uncovered a tinge of nationalism, finding that 83 percent were opposed to Italy building its new nuclear power plants in neighboring countries, while only 11 percent thought it was a good idea.

Armed with his mandate, Berlusconi's government hit the ground running, confirming the month after the election that Italy will begin building new nuclear power plants within five years to reduce the county's rising dependency on oil, gas and imported electricity, setting itself the ambitious goal of generating 25 percent of Italy's electricity with nuclear power by 2030. To realize the goal, Italy will need to construct eight to 10 new large reactors. Laying the groundwork for the project, Berlusconi's government drew up a package of nuclear legislation, including establishing a national nuclear research and development facility, cutting the notorious red tape regarding licensing of new reactors at existing nuclear power plant sites and facilitating licensing of new reactor locales.

Any doubts that Italian environmentalists might have had about Berlusconi's intentions were dashed last month when Italian Minister for Economic Development Claudio Scajola told attendees at a special event in Paris to mark the 50th anniversary of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency that the shuttering of Italy's nuclear power plants following the 1987 referendum was a "terrible mistake, the cost of which totaled over 50 billion euros (more than $62 billion), if you count direct and indirect costs."

The payoff for the Kremlin, quite aside from its involvement in the construction and fueling of the nuclear facilities, is to acquire an ardent advocate in the European Union. In a secondary benefit, after meeting with Medvedev, Berlusconi told journalists that Italy would use its position as the G8 president in 2009 to cooperate actively with Russia in order to overcome the effects of the global financial crisis, commenting, "Next year we will cooperate with President Medvedev so that the G8 could work most efficiently to manage the real global economy."

Oh, and other Russian-Italian energy initiatives? Russia's largest independent crude producer, LUKoil, signed an agreement with Italy's ERG energy company to set up a joint venture, while Russia's Unified Energy System and Italian energy company Enel signed a memorandum of cooperation in the energy sector.

If the Kremlin has been studying history, then it is apparent that Rome has paid equally close attention to Washington's repeated pronouncements about the risk of relying on the former Evil Empire's growing dominance of Europe's natural gas market. If the Bush administration feels queasy about the new partnership, then it can raise it during possible discussions about another source of U.S.-Russian friction, as Berlusconi is offering to mediate between Washington and Moscow to ease tensions over U.S. plans to station its anti-ballistic missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Some days it just doesn't pay for a superpower to get out of bed.

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