between Florence and Rome began, with the aim of joining the high voltage electrical system of the north with that of the centre and the south. Around the same time, international high voltage connections with France (380 kV Venaus-Villarodin, 1969) and Switzerland were also put in place. In the same year, undersea electrical cables were put in place to connect the peninsula and the islands of Elba (1966), Ischia (1967), and Sardinia through Corsica (1967). In 1963, Enel was involved in the Vajont Dam disaster. On 9 October 1963, a huge landslide of 260 million cubic metres fell into the reservoir formed by the dam. The dam and power plant had been built by the Società Adriatica di Elettricità (the Adriatic Electricity Company, or SADE) and then sold to Edison, and it had just been transferred as part of the nationalisation process to the newly established Enel. The landslide created huge waves in the Vajont reservoir, which partially flooded the villages of Erto e Casso and swept over the dam, completely wiping out the towns in the valley below it: Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè. Approximately two thousand people died in the disaster. Enel and Montedison were charged in the ensuing trial as the companies responsible for the disaster, a responsibility considered all more serious because of the predictability of the event. The two companies were forced to pay damages to the communities involved in the catastrophe. 1970–1989: Energy crisis and search for new sources The decade of the 1970s was distinguished by a major energy crisis that led the company to implement drastic austerity measures, and the establishment of a national energy plan that defined the objectives of both building new power plants and searching for new energy sources. In 1975, as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and the austerity measures, and following the establishment of the first National Energy Plan (PEN), the aim of the company became that of reducing Enel's dependence on hydrocarbons, which was to be achieved with the use of other energy sources, including hydro, geothermal, coal, reducing waste, and, in particular, the use of nuclear power. Several new plants were built in the course of the decade. In the early 1970s, the construction of the nuclear power station Caorso (Emilia-Romagna), the first major nuclear power plant in Italy (to generate 840-860 MW), began. The station became operational in 1978. Between 1972