ABSTRACT: The account of the discussion held at the Chamber Industry Committee on the law that grants compensation to the municipalities that contain nuclear power plants.

This is the story of...

The President of the Committee started by reading a draft bill which aimed at making the start of the nuclear plan more rapid and resolute. For years, all the draft bills proposed had encountered the hostility of the regions and the anger of the citizens. If this were not enough, radicals and environmentalists had started to stir people's feelings, so that it seemed increasingly difficult to succeed in conforming Italy with the more modern and emancipated countries.

Thus, most people had started to believe that it was necessary to remove a single article in the huge mass of articles, emphatic laws and solemn statements, that is, an article which provided for a compensation for the municipalities which were to host nuclear power plants. This was the point, and all the members of the committee except for our "obstructionist" agreed on this. On that occasion, the latter announced his obstructionism. He said - naively - that this norm legalized bribes, all the while ignoring - because of his age or perhaps because of his anti-nuclear fury - that the State had long since been giving contributions to the municipalities for the inconvenience created by the big plants for the production of electric energy. But let us proceed by steps.

1 April 1982: radioactive April fool

On 1 April 1982, the members of the committee jokingly prepare an April fool's trick for the obstructionist, telling him that, because it is a modest law, it was best to avoid the solemn examination of the Assembly with all the members of Parliament. They tell him it is better to vote the bill at the Committee. This offers some advantages: greater discretion - given the importance of the matter - no reporters, no tribunes with the excitable public, no publicity. They then destroyed all the obstructionist's attempts to call the TV, the reporters, and to turn the Committee into a stage. His arguments were rather modest, even if they sounded sensible enough. If nuclear energy - he kept saying - is nice, clean and necessary to economy and progress, then what is the need to submerge the municipalities that will host them with billions? Are you trying to buy off their fears, their concern or even their health? Also, what is the meaning of all these expedients, this clandestinity, this working "behind closed doors"

? A few deputies mocked the obstructionist's ignorance. Did he ignore that even courts from time to time hold trials "in camera"? They all laughed heartily at the joke and braced for the hard work they had to do with a merry disposition.

Yes to nuclear energy, provided it is invisible

The speaker of the majority brought up the first problem, that is, the name to be given to the law. Proposal: contributions in favour of the municipalities that host nuclear power plants. No, no, say the members of the committee, the word "nuclear" shouldn't appear in the title. We need to be more indirect, more discreet, what the hell! The last thing we need to do is put the word 'nuclear' in the title of the law! Someone suggests to use the word "thermo-nuclear", for example. No, no, echo many of the members of the committee. "Thermo-electric" is the right word, or rather, the best thing would be to use the expression "electric power stations", it sounds chaster. Someone remarks that it may sound chaster but the title includes non-nuclear power plants as well, such as stations powered by coal. Well, the proposer says, after all, coal has its own problems. Even coal causes problems to its neighbours...At this point, all the members of the committee start giving their own opinion on the need to make a distin

ction between nuclear energy and coal.

The President was seized by a doubt: were they not supporting the obstructionist themselves? After a series of cut and thrust in a coded language, with insistent references to oil and its growing prices and a few telephone calls with mysterious interlocutors, the speaker, whose task it is to refer on the text to be submitted to the Committee's vote, takes the situation under his control. Nuclear energy and coal are equally worthy for the cause of progress. I don't think we should deny the latter that which we grant the former...

If ever, give it something less. All the members of the committee congratulate him and decide that this is the proper solution.

They start buying municipalities

The law is given the following title: "Norms for the allotment of funds in favour of the municipalities that host electric stations powered by combustibles other than hydrocarbons".

The finesse of this circumlocution had at once swept away any suspicion that the bill dealt with funds to be allotted, just as that familiar-sounding reference to electric power stations had removed all fears of too swift a step toward the nuclear future. In fact, all the members of the Committee rejoiced about the fact that the President of the ENEL (1) himself had taken care of this aspect. The President had sent all users a letter (together with their bills) which covertly hinted at the fact that with the production of nuclear energy, electric power would have become less expensive. For the moment, the President believed, it was premature to talk about nuclear energy to the average Italian citizen. But it was important to instil this reassuring belief in a promising and generous nuclear future.

The obstructionist did not appreciate the ENEL's elegant promotional pedagogy. On the contrary, one day, on meeting its President in the hall of the Committee, he insulted the latter with such swear-words that the stenographers, whose job it is to transcribe all that which the members of the Committee say, blushed.

The agreement on the title of the law had just been reached when a general confusion seemed to pervade the room. It seemed that the members of the committee had all been seized by a concern: to discover the lucky winners of the lottery which was being prepared. For the first time, the groups that generally tend to create themselves in such circumstances did not characterize all parties indistinctly. Concerning the nuclear choice, there had never been any dissent or differences between the majority and all the oppositions, that is, the credible oppositions. The only exception to this generalized consent was the solitary obstructionist, who could not, however, be considered a credible opposition. It was obvious that that natural movement of heads gathered spontaneously in a corner of the room was occurring in a selective way. The heads of the majority were gathered on one side, around their most authoritative head, and the same was true for the oppositions. I am using "opposition" as an stage name for those pa

rties that are not part of the majority but that are extremely careful not to topple that same majority....

...These mayors are all communists

From the uproar of the majority there comes a plaintive, weak voice, barely to be heard. These nuclear mayors are all communists! It's incredible!

The communists pretend they haven't heard, with considerable fair play. The speaker tries proposing an amendment while he looks at the communists, who look away. Their leader, with his well trimmed pepper-and-salt beard, is lighting a pipe and joking with the members of his group.

In practice, the majority would like the money to be given not only to the municipalities that host nuclear power plants, which are a bit too communist, but also to the contiguous ones, which belong at least partly to the Centre-Left. With a meaningful silence, everyone proves to consider the thing so self-evident to be unworthy of being discussed.

Perhaps - someone hints - "contiguous" is too rigid a term.

Contiguous money? No, adjacent money.

Someone suggests it is too restrictive, that it leaves too many people out.

General embarrassment. An agreement is reached on the word "adjacent". Adjacent means close, but not necessarily contiguous. It leaves space for a certain elegant discretion.

Now is the crucial and delicate point, that of quantifying the money. What should the allotment of the contribution be linked to? To the "kilowatts-hour" produced, suggests someone. A certain number of heads gather around a telephone. From the other end, a suggestion: better link them to the "kilowatts" of power installed. In the corner of the room where a number of members of the committee are gathered, comes a remark. These fucking nuclear power plants are inactive all the time, so it's no use counting money on the kilowatts-hour produced. By linking the money to the nominal power of the plant, you get the money in any case, even if the plant isn't operative. The polite part of the Commission, showing a clear contempt for similar expressions, whispers; yes, let's not create useless discussions, let's give the money according to the "kilowatts-hour" produced and according to the "power installed". Let's get on with it.

Better not forget anyone....

A phone keeps ringing insistently. A flood of tears alternated to floods of invectives comes gushing out of the receiver. By mentioning operating plants only, you will give the money only to those two or three municipalities which have old and small plants, a trifle. We, who are building the big power plants provided for in the energetic plan won't get a cent before a hundred years. Everyone knows that no one in Italy wants nuclear power plants - continues the voice, which at this point has become a dies irae - no one. Let's face it! If you want to give us the money, give to us now, because we have to face the trouble now: environmentalists, protests, farmers, road blocks and the whole anti-nuclear gang!

The majority confers with the minority, which confers with the majority. Someone wonders how they could possibly have forgotten this detail. The speaker accepts the fundamental request and corrects the text, which now becomes "a contribution for each kilowatt of nominal power of the plants under construction".

All this talking and deciding occurs while the obstructionist, whom no one pays attention to, is reading out his obstructionist monologue. The secretary of the Committee had barely had the time to pick up his pen to correct the text when a telephone call interrupts him. Someone wants to point out that the Committee has forgotten about him. The voice begs and cries, says he still doesn't have a nuclear plant but will soon have the authorization to build one. He begs the committee to include him in the bill.

The President, without paying attention to him, passes the request on to his stenographer, while he takes part in a joke at the end of the room. The comma is thus corrected, specifying that the contributions given for the plants under construction will be extended to plants "that will be subsequently authorized".

And the regions?

What about the regions?

On the following week, the Commission's proceedings start off badly. Up in the sky, dark clouds seem to be a bad omen. The only reassuring element is the monotonous voice of the obstructionist, who continues to talk as if the world did not exist. Outside the world keeps turning. All the regions of Italy threaten a march against Rome. People have heard that the money shall be given only to the municipalities and their adjacent municipalities, disrespecting the regional requests.

Aren't we adjacent, shout the regions? The nuclear power plants insist on our territory and we insist too! Aren't we bothered by their presence as well?

The speaker, the majority, the minority, the totality with exception of the obstructionist, try to find a solution. They react firmly, to avoid giving the impression that they are surrendering to pressures of any kind. After all, the problem is only that of modifying the title of the law, which is now "contributions in favour of the municipalities and of the regions that host nuclear plants..."

A solitary scream echoes in the night. It was nighttime, because the Committee had met at 10:00 p.m. hoping to wear out the obstructor. The scream shakes the members of the Committee summoned for the night shift while they were reading the novels they had taken along from home.

I'm the only one to be excluded, shouts the solitary, regional voice. Why on earth? echoes the Committee, convinced that it had distributed the money so well that it was difficult for someone to be excluded. But the night is shaken only by incredibly powerful moans. At least a thousand megawatts, one might have thought, but in fact they were 1200 megawatts.

One-off money

But are you absolutely positive that you are not included in the law, asks the Committee unanimously. As a reply the voice bursts into tears. What about the other regions? insinuates the Committee? The other regions are lucky, explodes the moaning voice. Their power plants are either nuclear or convertible ones powered by coal. Therefore, they get the money anyhow. What sort is your power plant? asks the Committee, reassured by the incipient reasonableness of the nightly voice. Unfortunately, says the voice, my power plant isn't convertible at all.

The members of the Committee are worried. Someone hints that it might be a trick, a Trojan horse....A Trojan horse my foot! answers one them who has just woken up. He's a son of a bitch, if we give the money to him, we won't be able to stop.

Money ad personam

The region understands that it is now or never. It starts swearing that it is the only one that has been neglected, and that there are no tricks in this innocent and legitimate request. The Committee, worn out by the lack of sleep, could accept anything except being considered unfair. It suggests to include "for non-convertible thermo-electric plants powered by combustible oil and which are not designed to operate with coal".

A member of the Committee, who has an incredible logical capacity, hints that this is like giving the contributions to everyone. The law had been created to favour nuclear energy; we have already extended it to coal and now to oil. Perhaps we have altered its function as an extraordinary intervention. The region, on the other end of the phone, understands the danger and erupts: if you fear mine is a trick, you can specify further...I'm offering you my identikit. You could add "with a nominal power not inferior to 1200 megawatts". If that isn't enough, if you still fear that there are more regions, add "power plants activated after 31 December 1980".

Money galore

The Committee, at this point, is faced to such unquestionable demonstrations of good faith, and reassured that this is a favour ad personam, that it accepts.

However, it adds that is must be a "one-off contribution". It is decided.

In the meanwhile, the research offices of the municipalities had done some reckoning, and considered the misery of such contribution, have prompted a technical protest. From all over the country, the mayors of all parties stir up trouble, taking advantage of the widespread discontent. They convince people of the fact that the members of the Committee cannot reckon, and that they know nothing at all about finance. How on earth, they say, can they give fixed contributions with soaring inflation rates? In a few years' time, we will be getting a misery.

A supercilious delegation of all the parties of the country asks to be received. The meeting is full of subjunctives and of important-sounding theoretic concepts. The gist is more or less that the delegation thinks the money is not enough, so at least the money should be given index-linked. The Committee, which acts in conformity with the delegation, cannot but agree on the legitimacy of the request. Thus, the text now specifies that the "above mentioned contributions ...are index-linked".

Biographical elements concerning the obstructionist

Many months had gone by since the committee had first met to draft this law. Contrary to what anyone might expect, the law consisted of a single article, but one which contained such legislative wisdom that the seasons passed and the members of the committee were stuck. After the spring came the summer. The obstructionist, who had never gone home fearing that in his absence the Committee might commit some sort of mischief, continued talking. In July all the members of the committee were wearing elegant summer suits with fresh shirts. The obstructionist, who hadn't changed his suit, sweat a great deal in his winter garments and didn't realize that the seasons were changing about him. His garments were becoming more and more similar to the greenish colour of the leather seat from where he hadn't moved for months.

...and the Pec

Then came autumn, with the rain, and with the rain, the Pec. Despite the obstructionist's opinion, Pec is not the abbreviation of peculation. It is something different. It is a matter of deep concern for the inhabitants of the Tuscan-Emilian. The Pec is closely linked to the nuclear plan, but it is not a nuclear power plant itself, and therefore it was impossible to include it in the law with its inhabitants. An appeal was specially launched to the intellectuals of the country, urging them to study a way to include the Pec in the philosophy of the law.

Un unidentified object...

After much thinking, the members of the committee discovered that the Pec is a reactor for the experimentation of the combustibles of advanced electric power plants. These scientists are really extraordinary, they manage to hold conferences on nuclear energy giving you the impression that they are talking about something else. They even suggested the national committee for nuclear energy to change its name: it is now called ENEA, which stands for National Council for Nuclear and Alternative Energies. Everyone will agree that this style, with its discreet hints and dodging is far more reassuring.

Therefore, having discovered that the Pec is a reactor like other reactors, even if it does not produce electric power, the Committee thought it would be shameful to exclude it from the law. The Committee, who would never even dream of asking advice to technicians, considers the fact so self-evident that it immediately decides to allot some money to the municipality that hosts such an important reactor.

The Pec must have had influential friends, because all the telephones of the Committee start ringing. A bustle of long distance and intercontinental calls. The messages, which all had a rather peremptory tone, agreed and insisted on one fact: the financing should not be one-off.

But what could it be linked to, if the Pec does not produce electricity and therefore there are no kilowatts-hour to calculate? The Committee was at a loss. What can we think of that has the same energy and growing vitality as that of the turbines of the nuclear power plants? A member of the Committee gets an idea: of course, the Pec doesn't have turbines, but it has exponential costs. At one third of the works, it has already exceeded the estimated cost by three times.

This is a good idea, echoed the others, to cover the voice of the obstructionist, who was screaming too loudly. But when it came to translating the idea into practical terms, one member doubted whether it was not crazy, but since none of the members seemed to know much about the Pec, the suggestion was accepted in consideration of the fact that the request for funds seemed almost modest: 5 per thousand of the expenses. A trifle. They were all so happy that they had found an intelligent solution to such a delicate technical (almost scientific) problem, that no one paid attention to the protests of the obstructionist. Suddenly a member of the Committee who was talking over the phone throws the microphone away. A flood of abuse comes gushing out of the receiver: ignorants! Shouts the voice at the members of the Committee. Don't you know that the Pec will cost much more than a nuclear power plant? Above all, don't you know that its cost will be eternal? The member of the committee asks in what sense the costs ar

e eternal. Because it shall never be finished, continues the voice. Otherwise, the fraud will be discovered, that the Pec is useless, that it is already obsolete. Obsolete? echo the members of the committee, embarrassed because they thought of the Pec as a state-of-the-art facility.

The explanation given by the voice makes it clear. Yes, the Pec is like a never-ending task, it will never end. By lasting eternally, the Pec solves a great number of problems: it provides jobs for the young, it improves the situation of poverty of Southern Italy, it fuels the industries that receive the contracts (to build and to destroy, a sort of perpetual industry). And the grand final is that now it will also feed the municipality that hosts it. Forever.

The members of the Committee glance at each other, embarrassed. They ask each other: what do you know about this damned Pec? They are all at a loss. For how long has this Pec existed? It doesn't exist yet, because it isn't finished. When did all this start? The committee panics. No one remembers when it was first started, nor who was the minister who inaugurated it. The matter was becoming serious when the President maliciously placed the receiver in front of the speaker which blasted the obstructionist's speech at full volume. Having few arguments, the obstructionist insisted on a single idea: Pec-peculation, pec-peculation, he repeated obsessively. The president hoped that with this move the anonymous interlocutor would realize that there were people in the Committee who thoroughly disapproved of the Pec.

This qui pro quo was interrupted by a whisper coming from the thick velvet curtains in front of the door. A series of odd characters had been hiding behind those curtains since the beginning of the discussion on the law. They were jokingly referred to as the friends of the atom, because they were so attached to the law - like the obstructionist - that they had decided not to leave their posts until science had triumphed. They too, like the obstructionist, had been camping there without ever going home or changing their shirt. In the evening, they cooked eggs on a camp stove powered by a small pocket-size nuclear power plant. As it often occurs, the obstructor and the these people had almost made friends. At times the friends of the atom had offered their pocket-size nuclear power plant to the obstructionist, so that he may heat some coffee for himself, but the latter had always courteously refused. The obstructionist believed he should never relinquish his confidence in renewable energies. Thus, he used a ru

dimentary turbine propelled by the flood of sweat which dripped from his forehead during his fiery and ever-lasting monologues. Everyone aimed at being energetically self-sufficient in his own way, and not to rely on foreign sources of energy.

The Pec even has friends

The friends of the atom explain to the President that the person who is threatening over the phone is the municipality adjacent to the Pec. On behalf of all adjacent municipalities, it asks for the extension of the benefice, in conformity with the law's philosophy. The President reports to the speaker, who reports to the members of the Committee. It is a problem of fairness, they all echo. Clearly, we have forgotten this aspect, says one member. Because the Pec is not a nuclear power plant, obviously the concept of adjacent, which applies to the municipalities with nuclear power plants, cannot apply here, unless we state so explicitly. The President orders to make this explicit. Thus, the Committee, in its Solomonic wisdom, decides to accept the request of the adjacent municipalities. The law shall therefore distribute the contributions to the municipalities which host the Pec and "to the other adjacent municipalities".

and they are adjacent...

But the problems, far from being solved, continued to appear. The controversy which had already exploded on the occasion of the discussion about the semantic ambiguity of the concept of "adjacent", re-explodes now. In the end, the speaker, who represents the governmental majority, conscious of that fact that if he hid beneath a limited interpretation of the concept of "adjacent" he would have given money to the communists mayors only, decides in favour of semantic pluralism. The text of the law contains the following meaningful specification: "adjacent municipalities concerned".

The commissioners explode: now all the municipalities of the entire Appenine will want to participate in the division of this blessing!

Shall I come too? Why not?

The members of the Committee are agitated by great ideals. Inter-municipal battles: I am adjacent; no you aren't. But I am concerned, as the law says. A war explodes on who is adjacent and concerned and who is less adjacent and concerned. At a certain point, as always in such situations, wisdom expresses itself with the simplicity of the truth. A higher court, the regional court, will decide on who is really an "adjacent municipality" and who isn't, decide the members of the Committee, who ignore the fact that the area of the adjacent municipalities concerned about the distribution of public money involves more than one region.

As soon as the riot between the municipalities had calmed down, another riot exploded between the regions that are both adjacent and concerned by the matter.

But the legislator's imagination is endless. He never gives up at the first difficulties. There was, in fact, a small problem which bothered the parties of the majority, and it was that both regions who were to receive the financing were communist. The matter was no doubt tiresome. After all, why should the Government, which isn't communist, give money to two regions that will fight the whole time to assert their adjacency and concern in the Pec money? The solution is self-evident. The majority prepares the text: "if no agreement is reached, a decree of the minister of the industry will settle the matter". The communists are overjoyed. They think they will never quarrel, so as not to give the minister the occasion to poke his nose into things that concern the two regions of Tuscany and Emilia only.

Make way for the "public works"

In the end, someone, after having read the entire comma, thinks it will be hard to find a single municipality in the Appenine which is not interested somehow in receiving the subsidy for defects or radioactive leaks or transport of dangerous material, rounds the contribution off by 5 per thousand, linking it to the cost of "the expenses to be covered for public works" as well as to the cost of the reactor, which everyone ignores (it seems to amount to an unspecified number of thousands of billions).

As anyone can see, the concept of "public works" does not contain anything specific, but anything which is conceivable and feasible; roads, bridges, air viaducts, sixteen-lane highways. Who could deny these costly things the right to be considered public works and therefore works that produce that 5 per thousand benefit which the law talks about?

All the members of the Committee, at this point, are seized by the envy of not being one of the little municipalities of the Pec that would have receive such a generous amount of money.

This is an extraordinary intuition, that of the public works! Demolish a house to build another one for unspecified requirements of the reactor. After all, who can say what the needs of such a strange and anomalous reactor as the Pec are? But why houses only? Why not shift entire villages, municipalities? Everything could be included in the concept of "public works". Let's shift all the villages. Splendid, they all cry. This is the real philosophy!

Is the 393 a double?

At a certain point, the members of the committee are seized by a sense of panic. The obstructionist had started to wave a piece of paper. The "393", shouted the obstructionist, without any need to shout because everyone could hear him in the Committee.

to save time, the members of the Committee often mention the numbers of the laws they refer to, and everyone understands or pretends to understand, because it isn't nice to show you can't recognize a law by its number. In fact, no one knew what the obstructionist meant with that "393", but the general impression was the he was evoking something unpleasant. The President, interpreting a diffused need to come out of that situation of uncertainty, suspends the session. The fifteen phones scattered through the room are taken by storm. This marks the beginning of a series of conversations, almost all coded.

Nonsense, it's only the double contribution

When the session is resumed, the speaker for the majority, with solemn compunction thanks the obstructionist for that reminder of the "393". Had it not been for his extraordinary memory, the Committee would have risked giving the public contribution to certain municipalities twice, in exchange for the same "inconvenience", to use a word that summarizes all the annoyances a municipality which offers its hospitality to a nuclear plant has to face. While most members of the Committee expressed a contained sense of satisfaction, the voice of the secretary read the text which everyone hoped, at least for this comma, would have received the unanimous consent of the Committee. "The location of the municipalities that are to receive the contributions and the division of the contribution among the same, as well as the ascertainment of the existence of the requirements for the allotment of the contributions provided by article 15 of law n. 393 of 2 August 1975, are decided by a decree of the President of the regional

council".

All settled.

The obstructionist, who for once hoped he could vote normally like all the others, without being forced to oppose his difference, tried to say that that title not only did not prevent the president of the council from giving the double contribution, but even authorized it. He was submerged by a chorus of "you're never satisfied!", "you've got a problem", "what the hell!".

While the members of the committee proceeded unanimously with the voting, a mocking voice from the bottom of the room addressed the obstructionist: how can you think that the president of the regional council would give the money to a mayor twice? Maybe if he belonged to his party, to his current, to his subcurrent...and this, in terms of probability, is extremely improbable.

At the time in which all this was going on, the Chernobyl cloud had not yet circled the whole planet, so all the members of the committee except the obstructionist, one cool morning of November, voted in favour of the law. No one remembered exactly who it was to say that voting for nuclear energy meant voting for science, for reason, for progress, so that they had all repeated that concept, convinced that the unanimity was a symptom of truth.

What about the obstructionist?

The presence of the obstructionist had been considered unimportant by everyone, for a vote which everyone considered unanimous. After all, what could that single unfavorable vote represent, compared to the 27 favourable votes of all the parties? Someone hinted that the obstructionist would have been incapable of taking part in the vote that morning of 10 November 1982. After so many months of permanence on his seat, he had blended into it. He had blended into the furniture. That single unfavorable vote was granted to him as a commemoration. This is proved by the fact that after that no one spoke about that law, and, above all, everyone canceled the memory of the fact that someone had opposed a law so harmoniously projected into the glorious future of mankind.

Translator's notes

(1) ENEL: National Electricity Board