Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) Chief Executive Fulvio Conti said in an interview published Thursday that Italy's largest power company was ready to invest up to EUR20 billion in nuclear power in the coming years.
Enel's debt of more than EUR50 billion isn't a problem since the company can rely on cash flows worth EUR63 billion from 2008-2012, Conti told business daily Il Sole-24 Ore.
To help lower power prices in Italy, which relies heavily on imports for its energy needs, Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government has pledged to reintroduce nuclear power in Italy by the end of parliament's term in 2013. Atomic power was banned in the country following a 1987 referendum.