ROME—Italy's industry minister says the new government plans to restart the country's nuclear power program.
Claudio Scajola told a business lobby group Thursday that the government has scheduled the start of construction of the first new nuclear-powered plant by 2013.
The business lobby Confindustria has called for a return to nuclear energy to reduce the high cost of electricity in Italy.
Italians decided to close the country's nuclear energy program in a referendum a year after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986. It was unclear how Silvio Berlusconi's new government intended to move forward despite that referendum.
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