Borders: Between geopolitics and utility bills

The world’s first civilian nuclear reactor was built in the Kaluga Oblast, some 110 kilometres south-west of Moscow. It was called APS-1 and came into operation on 27 June 1954, feeding electricity into the grid at a capacity of approximately 5 megawatts. It was not only the first civilian plant: it was the first in the world to produce electricity for civilian use from nuclear fission. It remained in service until 2002, after which it was converted into a museum. Shortly before that, in 1951, the USA had built the EBR-1, a prototype. Meanwhile, it was Great Britain that developed Calder Hall in 1956, the first commercial-scale facility: 200 megawatts. The IAEA, the regulatory body, was established in 1957, and in that same year an accident occurred at Windscale in England. Then came the great expansion. Chernobyl in 1986 changed the course of events. Or rather, it led to stagnation. Today, the technologies are safe and the prospects for energy sovereignty are fundamental and indispensable for a country’s economic stability. As is the case with Italia.

If one were to trace a thread linking all the events involving attacks on or damage to energy infrastructure – from the case of Nord Stream II to the blackouts in Ukraine, right through to the cyber-attacks against Saudi Aramco in 2012 – one realises that this overview reveals over twenty years of tensions. The importance of energy has always been a key political issue, but today it takes on new significance, because the challenge now centres entirely on artificial intelligence. And data centres consume vast amounts of energy, not to mention the water they use.

For example, France will find itself having to invest 500 billion over the next twenty years to remain the leader in nuclear power within the European Union. Will it succeed? Whose supplies will it cut off if it does? Obviously, Italia. Naturally, the issue is linked to the cost of gas and electricity for businesses and citizens, to the energy transition sought by Brussels, to electric cars and to the regulatory framework in Europe. And we must not overlook an issue that is as obvious as it is uncomfortable: namely, that energy costs depend on international stability. It is at least since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine that Western Europe has relearned this lesson, confirmed by the crises in the two straits most crucial to the Old Continent’s energy supplies: Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb.

All this is discussed in today’s episode of Confini, the programme from Sole 24 Ore TV and NextMed, airing this evening at 9 pm, as it does every Thursday, on channel 63 of digital terrestrial television. Joining the presenter Simone Spetia and Claudio Antonelli, deputy editor of 24Ore NextMed, to discuss the topic is Antonio Talia, from Radio 24 and co-author of the podcastNome in Codice, Professor Lucia Visconti Parisio, lecturer in Finance at the University of Milan-Bicocca, and Ruggero Corrias, chief public affairs officer at Newcleo. A report presents a projected analysis of energy bill costs under various scenarios (nuclear, gas, LNG or renewables).