Editor's Note: This is part of IEEE Spectrum's ongoing coverage of Japan's earthquake and nuclear emergency.
Italy is hurtling towards a referendum on nuclear power this month that could deliver yet another blow to the beleaguered low-carbon energy option, following recent reversals in Switzerland, Germany and Japan. Political graffiti and propaganda that I recorded last week in Genoa mirror opinion polls that show Italian voters souring rapidly on nuclear energy.
Fukushima Mon Amour (top right) is a riff on the 1959 French film Hiroshima Mon Amour, set in post-war Japan. Another image found on Genoa's medieval walls (lower right) closes with one of the Italian language's strongest insults, porcodio, to read: No to god-damned nuclear.
For Italy, this month's referendum is a case of deja vu: The country shut down the last of its four nuclear reactors in 1990, after voters approved an antinuclear referendum inspired by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. That made Italy the only G8 nation without nuclear power. Italy's top court ordered a second referendum for June 12 and 13 of this year after Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi passed legislation to restart Italy's nuclear program, proposing to supply a quarter of Italy's power via nuclear energy by 2030.
Last week, sensing an impending loss at the polls, Berlusconi's government put off the plan for two years and sought to scrap this month's referendum. If the courts nevertheless allow the vote to go forward, Italy's nuclear renaissance could be nipped in the bud.
But for all the anti-nuclear indignation that Italian voters may muster, their rejection of nuclear power is likely to be less than definitive. Roughly 10% of Italy's electricity is now nuclear power imported from France and Switzerland, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry group.
