Italy's Parliament has given final approval to a contested bill allowing a return to nuclear energy more than two decades after voters shut down the country's reactors.Premier Silvio Berlusconi has made nuclear power a key part of his conservative government's energy plan. Italians pay some of the highest electricity rates in Europe and nuclear power is seen as a way to lower them.
The bill approved Thursday was shuttled between the two houses of Parliament for months amid strong opposition from the center-left and environmental groups. In a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster, Italians rejected nuclear power.
The government is now expected to choose the sites to construct nuclear reactors and decide how to dispose of radioactive waste.
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