The Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA) (''Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development'') is an

Italian Government The government of Italy is in the form of a democratic republic, and was established by a constitution in 1948. It consists of legislative, executive, and judicial subdivisions, as well as a Head of State, or President. The Italian Consti ...

-sponsored

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

agency. The agency undertakes research in areas which will help to develop and enhance Italian competitiveness and employment, while protecting the environment. ENEA is an acronym that stands for ''Energia Nucleare ed Energie Alternative'' ("

Atomic Energy Atomic energy or energy of atoms is energy carried by atoms. The term originated in 1903 when Ernest Rutherford began to speak of the possibility of atomic energy. Isaac Asimov, ''Atom: Journey Across the Sub-Atomic Cosmos'', New York:1992 Plume, ...

and

Alternative Energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

").

History

Initially (1982), ENEA was an acronym that stood for ''Energia Nucleare ed Energie Alternative'' ("

and

"), according to its

mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operatio ...

. After a referendum against the production of atomic energy in Italy (following the

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about n ...

nuclear reactor disaster in 1986) passed in 1987, in 1991 ENEA's

was changed and, consequently, its complete name, which became ''Ente per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e l’ambiente'' ("Agency for new technologies, energy and environment"). In January 1999 a new charter readdressed the goals for the agency as follows: * To undertake initiatives aimed at developing, enhancing and promoting research and innovation, in keeping with Italy's EU and international commitments in terms of energy efficiency, environmental protection and technological innovation. * To support the implementation of high-tech production processes, especially by promoting demand for research and technology oriented towards enhancing sustainable development. * To promote the transfer of technology and developments in the fields of energy efficiency and environmental protection to public administrations and businesses, in keeping with national and EU guidelines. * To provide, upon request, specialist technical and organisational support to administrations promoting public initiatives at the international, national, regional and local levels, in all the sectors falling within ENEA's purview. In July 2009 the Italian parliament passed a law readdressing ENEA's mission statement, including to back atomic energy, and contextually changing its complete name to the current one. After

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 ...

in 2011 a second referendum against atomic energy production was held, and passed again. As the role of ENEA became contradictory to the referendum outcome, it was restructured once again in July 2015 and its mission statement was readdressed in order to be more coherent with the Italian energy policy. In the nuclear sector ENEA participates in the development of the

ITER ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Ear ...

fusion reactor to produce clean energy.

Research centers

Besides the headquarters in Rome, ENEA has the following

research center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

s and laboratories in Italy: *

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different na ...

Research Center * Brasimone Research Center (near Bologna) *

Brindisi Brindisi ( , ) ; la, Brundisium; grc, Βρεντέσιον, translit=Brentésion; cms, Brunda), group=pron is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Histo ...

Research Center * Casaccia Research Center (Roma) *

Faenza Faenza (, , ; rgn, Fènza or ; la, Faventia) is an Italian city and comune of 59,063 inhabitants in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, situated southeast of Bologna. Faenza is home to a historical manufacture of majolica-ware glazed ea ...

Research Laboratory *

Frascati Frascati () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated wit ...

Research Center *

Ispra Ispra is a ''comune'' and small town on the eastern coast of Lake Maggiore, in the province of Varese (Lombardy, northern Italy). Toponymy Attested by the name ''Ispira'' (712), ''Ispira'' (XIV). Appears as ''Ispratium'' in Aegidius Tschudi's '' ...

Research Laboratory *

Portici Portici (; ) is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Naples in Italy. It is the site of the Portici Royal Palace. Geography Portici lies at the foot of Mount Vesuvius on the Bay of Naples, about southeast of Naples itself. There i ...

Research Center * Santa Teresa Research Center (Pozzuolo di

Lerici Lerici ( lij, Lerxi, locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of La Spezia in Liguria (northern Italy), part of the Italian Riviera. It is situated on the coast of the Gulf of La Spezia, southeast of La Spezia. It is known as the plac ...

, near

La Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest cit ...

) *

Saluggia Saluggia (''Salugia'' in Piedmontese) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Vercelli, near the Dora Baltea river. It is known in Ital ...

Research Center * Trisaia Research Center (near

Rotondella Rotondella ( Lucano: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the province of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. Language People of Rotondella speak R'tunnar (Rontondellese), a dialect of Basilicata. Cuisine *U' pastizz 'rtunnar: Prod ...

)

References

External links

* * Some specialistic ENEA's research sites: *
CRESCO - Supercomputing and ENEA- Grid Center
(Centro computazionale di RicErca sui Sistemi COmplessi) *
Meta-Knowledge Engineering & Management (MKEM): High-Intelligent Socio-Cognitive Systems
*
Thermal-Fluid Dynamics
*

- COSMIC: COupling Smart Molecules Into Chips Government of Italy Cold fusion {{gov-stub