Japan crisis deepens Europe's nuclear rift

Brussels (AFP) March 20, 2011 Japan's atomic crisis has widened an old chasm in Europe between critics calling for a nuclear-free world and advocates who see it as a vital source of energy for decades to come. Jolted by images of Japanese workers scrambling to prevent a new Chernobyl, the European Union decided to test the ability of the continent's 143 nuclear reactors to survive earthquakes, floods and terrorist attacks.
EU energy ministers will now discuss the details of these so-called "stress tests" at an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Monday that was convened to assess the impact of events in Japan on the 27-nation bloc.
Critics of nuclear energy say that's not enough.
Sigmar Gabriel, head of Germany's Social Democrat opposition, predicted the "end of the atomic era" as he announced plans backed by the chancellor of nuclear-free Austria to gather one million signatures to demand EU legislation on the matter.
Under a new law approved by the European Parliament in December, citizens can force the European Commission to draft legislation if enough signatures are gathered.
The incident at Fukushima No. 1 plant, caused by an earthquake and tsunami, has raised public fears about nuclear energy, with 100,000 protesters in Germany demanding the closure of that country's nuclear plants.
The emergency in Japan has brought back bad memories in Europe of a disaster that hit closer to home, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in the Soviet Union in 1986.
Faced with public opinion turning rapidly against nuclear energy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel took radical steps.
On Monday she announced a three-month moratorium on plans approved last year to postpone by more than a decade, until the mid-2030s, the date when the last of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors are turned off.
The following day Merkel ordered the temporary shutdown of Germany's seven oldest nuclear reactors while authorities conduct safety probes.
And on Saturday she said she would propose common safety standards at Europe's nuclear reactors during a summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday.
"We have standardised all sorts of things in the European Union -- from the size of apples to the shape of bananas -- and we could also really talk about common safety measures for all the nuclear centres in Europe," she said.
But European governments do not appear ready to give up on nuclear energy just yet, most notably France, which relies on 58 reactors for 75 percent of its electricity needs.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy defended nuclear energy as "essential" to his country's energy independence "and the fight against greenhouse gases."
Czech President Vaclav Klaus -- who regularly crosses swords with environmentalists -- slammed as "political opportunism" calls for restrictions or the outright scrapping of nuclear power.
The head of the OECD, the policy and research body for governments of 34 leading economies, urged the world to stay committed to nuclear power as an alternative source of energy despite the Fukushima disaster.
"I'm particularly worried that there could be a backlash, or maybe it's already happening, against the alternative of nuclear, and that it may now be stopped or perceived to be wrong, period," Angel Gurria told BBC radio.
European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, a former German regional leader, was accused of causing panic in the financial markets after speaking of an "apocalypse" in Japan.
Oettinger angered the French government after he stated that at least one reactor in Europe would fail the voluntary stress tests that are supposed to be conducted in the second half of the year.
"I am surprised and shocked by these remarks which could spark concerns among our citizens and discredit an industry," French energy minister Eric Besson told AFP.