* Italy agrees with U.S. view on energy imports reduction
* Gas operator, grid ownership split not priority in Italy
* Extension of car sector incentives in 2010 desirable
By Giselda Vagnoni
ROME, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Italy is set to sign a nuclear cooperation deal with the United States to enrol U.S. companies to help build nuclear power stations after a 22-year ban, Economic Development Minister Claudio Scajola told Reuters.
Scajola, who travels to the U.S. next week, said he and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu would sign an accord for nuclear energy research and development cooperation and a declaration to encourage joint efforts to build nuclear power plants in Italy.
"These are agreements of high importance which open the way for new partnerships between Italian and U.S. companies useful to accelerate Italy's return to nuclear energy," Scajola told Reuters in written answers to questions.
He cited a partnership between Toshiba Corp <6502.t> unit Westinghouse and Italy's Finmeccanica
Italy, the only Group of Eight industrialised nation without nuclear power, rejected it in a 1987 referendum after the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
Italy aims to rebuild the sector and produce 25 percent of power from nuclear plants. That would help reduce Italy's heavy dependence on fossil fuel imports and cut carbon emissions.
Scajola said Italy shared the U.S. view, expressed by new Ambassador to Rome David H. Thorne in a newspaper interview last week, that Europe and Italy should boost energy supply security and reduce reliance on energy imports.
In July, Italy adopted proposals for a nuclear renaissance, but industry experts said the government faced an uphill struggle to find funds and sites for new plants. [ID:nL9243744] [ID:nL936038].
Several Italian regions have appealed to the Constitutional Court saying the new law scraps their right to give final approval to nuclear plants on their turf, Italian newspapers reported this week.
Scajola told Reuters the government would only have the upper hand in site allocation if it failed to reach agreement with local authorities.
The government has been studying various ways of covering investment risks linked to nuclear power which would involve private investors, such as creating consortia of energy producers and consumers, he said.
Italy's biggest utility Enel
INTERNAL MARKET ISSUES
Turning to the thorny issue of Italy's internal energy market, Scajola said ownership separation of gas operators and networks was "not a priority element for the market's opening compared with decisive factors such as diversification of infrastructure and supplies".
Energy regulator AEEG has for years urged dominant oil and gas group Eni
Responding to recurrent media and market talk of a possible break up of Italy's second-biggest power utility, Edison
Asked about Edison's desire to secure 15-20 percent in the joint venture between Enel and EDF, he said he was "in favour of strong participation of national and foreign companies in the new Italian nuclear renaissance."
Scajola said extending incentive schemes for new car buyers to 2010 was "desirable even though such intervention should be more targeted on the environmental side and coordinated on the European level".
Fiat
(Writing by Svetlana Kovalyova; Editing by Victoria Main)
((svetlana.kovalyova@thomsonreuters.com; +39 02 661 29450; Reuters Messaging: svetlana.kovalyova.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: ITALY NUCLEAR/SCAJOLA
Friday, 25 September 2009 14:20:54RTRS [nLP470146 ] {C}ENDS
Giselda Vagnoni
Editor in Charge
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