Nuclear stress tests are subjected to Japan

1:23 PM Japan, nuclear, stress, subjected, tests No Comments

TOKYO Japan said Wednesday it will perform "Stress Tests" on nuclear power plants of the country to facilitate increased concerns about disaster preparedness, after which caused this year's tsunami of the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

The 11 March earthquake and tsunami in the north-eastern Japan knocked out makes in Fukushima Dai-Ichi work, send it in the direction of meltdown in a crisis, the engineers always still struggling included. The operators came under heavy criticism not sufficient for the disasters to prepare.

The Government ordered already exhaustive safety checks on the country 54 nuclear reactors, which after the disaster, and it was not immediately clear what additional measures would be added by the stress tests.

Officials some of the details provided,. However, Minister of economy, trade and industry Banri Kaieda new security checks of the facilities are measuring defense against extreme events as big earthquake said.

"There is no change in our view, it is safe," said Kaieda, adding that the tests are supposed to offer more calm residents.

The Japan's reactors remain offline more than two-thirds. Utilities with plants that were down for safety reviews, after the crisis, or that have been already offline due to maintenance work reserved them due to public fear and restart anti-nuclear protests.

A major on the southwestern island of Kyushu last week approved the resumption of operations at the two nuclear reactors in his town of Genkai, what the first reboot of hit since the crisis of Fukushima plant would be. But the latest announcement is likely to delay this process.

The Governor of Prefecture that saga, where Genkai, yet his own approval Add. He said on Wednesday that he would hold to a final decision to make, to results of new tests available, was according to Kyodo News Agency.

Kaieda said that ordered after the European Union to the 143 nuclear power plants in the region after the crisis Fukushima will take over Japan's stress tests elements of which.

These ratings, the June 1 started, to the effects of natural and man-made events such as plane crash and terrorist attacks be taken into account.

Kaieda said that Japan's stress tests will include also ideas from Japanese regulatory authorities and residents.

Nuclear power generates about 30 percent of Japan's electricity. If nuclear reactors currently for maintenance face delays in the resumption of the operation down, could in the coming months a deficit makes the land face. But Kaieda down, ensure such.

He said "I'll take this responsibility, that there are no power supply problems,".

Copyright 2011 associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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UN report highlights Japan nuclear power plant error

5:10 PM error, highlights, Japan, nuclear, plant, power, Report No Comments

TOKYO Japan underestimated the risk of tsunamis and required monitor public health and safety of workers to closely following the crisis on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power a team of international safety inspectors of the world's largest nuclear disaster said in a preliminary examination since Chernobyl.

The report, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team under the leadership of Britain's top nuclear safety official Mike Weightman, highlighted some of the well documented weaknesses, which on the crisis in Fukushima contributed, if the plant, 150 km north of Tokyo, by a massive earthquake and then a tsunami in quick succession was taken on 11 March.

Those start with an error, a tsunami to plan, that would overrun the 19-foot break wall of Fukushima and knock out back-up electrical generators to four reactors, despite several predictions of an agency and operator Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s own scientists of the Government, which is such a danger was.

The IAEA team said Japan's crisis lessons for the nuclear industry around the world offered including, that operators regularly the risks of natural disasters should review and, that should "hardened" emergency response center to be established with accidents.

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"The tsunami risk for multiple sites has been underestimated," the report said three page summary. "Nuclear plant designers and operators should evaluate appropriately and provide protection against the risks of all natural hazards."

The report praised the general response to the disaster, however, say that it had been exemplary.

Story: Excessive radiation for two Fukushima employed?

Goshi Hosono, an advisor of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, accepts the report, marking the first step in the effort by the Japanese authorities to show that the lessons from Fukushima can certainly be applied to its remaining nuclear reactors.

Hosono said that the Government would have to review nuclear regulatory framework.

Playbook "not" work
The IAEA team present the results of a Ministerial Conference on nuclear safety in Vienna on June 20-24.

"We had a textbook, but it didn't work," said Tatsujiro Suzuki, a nuclear expert and Vice-Chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.

The economic stakes are high. Japan is only 19 of his pre-Fukushima tally 54 reactors working.

Unless local officials that Tokyo has a plan to the other resistant against the kind of blackout that plunged Fukushima in meltdown can be persuaded, more plants offline for maintenance will fall.

In the worst case all could Japan's reactors shut down in mid 2012. That would take 30 percent of the country's power generation and increase the risk of deep in the, close to permanent power rationing, officials say.

The Fukushima accident has forced more than 80,000 residents from their homes and deepening workers raised concerns about the safety operation of nearby children, fighting for the reactors and to stabilize the food supply as radiated from the site of water leaks.

In the report, the IAEA team Japan calls follow up monitoring of workers and the public health.

The crisis has also redirected, attention and resources of the reconstruction after the earthquake and tsunami, about 24,000 people in North Japan Coast killed.

'Very stupid'
Experts who have reviewed the Fukushima incident say, the IAEA report is certainly a starting point in the debate about what to be done in a country nuclear plants where the risks of earthquakes must still be understood.

"There are aspects of the planning for the security of the Fukushima plant, which are very stupid, in retrospect, and show a lack of imagination," said Kim Kearfott, a University of Michigan nuclear safety expert who toured their own this week Japan. "The nuclear industry can do better than this."

As the uranium fuel in the reactor No. 1 Kulissenwechsel started heating towards meltdown on 11 March, Tokyo Electric (Tepco) officials at the failures of the most important safety equipment for the loss of the power of the plant.

Measuring empty of Fukushima to officials in Tokyo monitoring the expected radiation hazard related problem. Complicated software to the expected plume of debris model an explosion of Fukushima had set up rather it with exact dates as gross assumptions.

Early on March 12, officials in the Ministry of education and technology had fixed the glitch and submit the projected radiation show Prime Minister kan, but the data was never released to the public.

In the meantime it was dangerously unclear, which was on the ground in Fukushima. TEPCO of President was in China, the utility of President was grounded in the Western Japan on a personal journey. Sakae Muto, the ranking Tepco official, spent the night of the quake with mayors of small towns in the vicinity of Fukushima, you notice of the accident, rather than the command center accession pressed.

The plant chief operating officer of Masao Yoshida, ignored to stop an order injection sea water in the reactor No. 1 due to a user request from kan's Office. Experts say that Yoshida made the right call, but say the confusion which highlighted major problems in the early response to the accident.

"It was impossible, that works as it was set up had the system," said Suzuki, who believes that Japan's nuclear industry must now show it manage and contain the most incredible accident at all its remaining nuclear reactors can public confidence to win. ", If they can demonstrate that it will be very difficult."

Others say that Japan must show, that he at the toughest Council critics, including long delayed steps, make independent of the most politically powerful utility industry to its nuclear regulatory agency acts.

"Japanese atomic operations must be updated on the International Council," said Kearfott. "Much of this advice was ignored in the past."

Reuters and the associated press contributed to this report.

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Japan utility head is back on nuclear crisis

9:09 PM crisis, Japan, nuclear, utility No Comments

TOKYO - the President of the Japanese utility which runs a tsunami devastated nuclear power plant came Friday after the largest financial losses in the company's history, saying that he was responsible for the ongoing crisis accept resignation had fallen out of favor.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu, criticized for its low-profile during the disaster early days, vowed that the utility do to bring his "highest continue to" the Fukushima Dai-Ichi course under control.

Fuel rods seem largely melted earthquake caused three reactors of the plant after the March 11 a tsunami, which set out, cooling systems – the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Leaking radiation called residents on evacuation of thousands, and the dangerous fight for the reactors will contain expected next year continue.

The crisis raised serious questions about the lax supervision, Japan's nuclear industry and to the country, plans needs to rely on nuclear power for half of its electricity scrap - up from his current one third.

, During a press conference in a traditional Japanese apology bow "I have shattered confidence of the public about nuclear power, and causing so many problems and fears of the people, am resignation," reporters Shimizu.

"I wanted to take management responsibility and bring a symbolic close," he said.

Shimizu's resignation was widely expected as heads of major Japanese company step-down responsibility for even minor scandals and problems are expected. He had in earlier calls for his resignation responds saying he needed to efforts, included stay the crisis on the right track.

Shimizu came under fire for disappears from the public eye when the problems at work first appeared, and then later check in in a hospital. TEPCO details of his posted never.

The company was criticised unprepared for the tsunami despite some scientific evidence, that earthquake-prone Japan with a wave of this size make be could. It has also for slow and not disclose information about the plant knocked problems.

Renewed security fears caused the Government, the Hamaokoa have nuclear power plant in Central Japan, a region shutter, where a major earthquake with almost 90 percent probability is expected in the next few decades.

TEPCO reported that its losses for the fiscal year March 2011 was ended up to 1.25 trillion yen ($ 15 billion) - one of the largest annual financial losses for Japan's corporate world. TEPCO had a profit of nearly 134 billion yen last financial year.

Total losses from the disaster are likely to be far greater, including compensation for the thousands of people forced from their homes to Fukushima Dai-Ichi and companies such as companies that say, products by radiation damaged were evacuated.

The company plans to secure his assets to more than 600 billion yen ($ 7.4 billion) sale at finance but acknowledged that it always still could assess not the amount of damage payments.

"We are facing a large influx of claims compensation, but we do not know their scale," Shimizu said.

The Quake and tsunami, the 24,000 people dead or missing, damaged plants, ports, and hundreds of suppliers. These two disasters, as well as the nuclear crisis have Japanese economy into a recession, data show suppressed Government, such as factory production and exports stagnate.

The TEPCO Board of directors promised to take no numbers, and other executives returns 40 to 60 percent of their salaries, the company said.

But TEPCO must also the costs for the solution of the problems in the reactors and restarting of other types of power plants, nuclear, covering power deficit are shoulder.

TEPCO scrapped a previous plan add two more reactors to the Fukushima Dai-Ichi.

The Government studied possible rescue operations, including the use of contributions from other utilities and TEPCO taxpayer money deal with the towering cost help.

Shimizu, 66, another company Executive, replace as President Toshio Nishizawa, 60, is.

"Our company one faces unprecedented crisis." I think I am a very heavy responsibility shoulders, "said Nishizawa."

President Tsunehisa Katsumata, 71, former President, a leading role since the crisis, in particular took while Shimizu was absent, stays on, in the apparent strive for continuity.

Shimizu said that he will remain as a consultant for an indefinite period without pay. The appointments are official after a General Assembly in June, according to TEPCO.

Moody's Japan has warned that it further downgrade could its debt rating for TEPCO junk bonds status if commercial banks refuse to extend the utility more credit. Earlier this month, Moody's lowered the rating by two notches to a level just above junk status.

Analysts say that the bowing and resignations in the world can fix the nuclear power plant.

"This is a very difficult task," said Mamoru Katou, an energy analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research, adding that doubts about the utility of promise grow to nine months supervised the work. "Nobody really knows."

___

Copyright 2011, the associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

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Japan approved Tepco nuclear claims plan

2:45 PM approved, claims, Japan, nuclear, Tepco No Comments

TOKYO Japan on Friday announced a plan, Tokyo electric power compensate victims of the crisis in the tsunami crippled nuclear plant without the­o­ret­i­CAL go, while it fights nuclear crisis since Chernobyl to solve the worst to help.

The plan, after weeks of dispute between government officials, bankers and Tokyo Electric executives about who should pay for the crisis, agreed revered investor fears that a collapse of the company power financial markets would roil.

You is because as engineers still working are reactors under control in the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant North of Tokyo bring two months after the earthquake and tsunami, the radiation leaks led.

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Credit rating agency standard & poor's lowered Tokyo Electric, known as Tepco, to BBB from BBB +, said in a statement: "The upper limit of compensation at that time remains unclear, and we expect remain Tepco's profitability under considerable pressure for a very long time."

The Government will issue special bonds to finance a Fund of Asia's largest utility, will deal with compensation claims which are expected to be in tens of billions of dollars. No ceiling is set at Tokyo Electric liabilities.

The Government is considering also buy preference shares Tokyo Electric, also known as Tepco when it runs behind the capital. Provided no information on the size of its planned fund injection but legislators told reporters earlier this week, that the bond would be about 5 trillion yen ($ 62 billion) in total.

In return for public support the Government that it will exercise control on management of Tokyo Electric "for a certain period of time" and makes other, has also asked that to pay annual premiums into the Fund.

Although facilitates that have averted the worst, sold stocks, investors utility unsettled by the prospect of the role the Government hands-on in the area run.

Bank shares also slipped after Japan's top Government spokesman said a distinction between loans before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and those following the disaster become expanded and banks should be required, that should work together in Tokyo Electric financial relief.

The market interpreted the comments Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano may be made by Chief as an indication of loans banks or other concessions. Shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, the utility main creditor bank, fell by 3.8 per cent.

"The Government on private corporate profits hurt." It hurts the profits of utilities has, and now it is trying the burden on the taxpayer Kiyoshi Noda, senior Fund Manager at MU investments reduce, by spreading to banks saying you profits.

Public burden
Government officials made great efforts to criticism of the regime as ward off unjustified use of taxpayer funds. Some have argued that the utility, which is a history of security lapses and is known for its cosy relations with the supervisory authorities, were allowed to fail.

"This framework should not as a rescue package for Tepco." Trade Minister Banri Kaieda we said this framework achieves compensation quickly... can take place for the victims and thus can provide power Tepco in a stable manner, "Reporters."

Minister tries also ensure to alleviate, end consumers would shoulders, much of the burden either in the form of higher electricity rates or new taxes, saying that the impact should be limited to both to a minimum.

The Government will need to pass a new law in the Parliament, to implement the plan, and analysts said the opposition, the schema, but critically will block difficult it as it will effectively mean a delay in compensating the victims of disasters.

The special bonds can be in cash, which handle first burst of payments and Tepco said the first payments to farmers and fishermen to make it concerned until the end of this month by the disaster.

More than 70,000 people in a largely rural area within a radius of 20 km (12 miles) of the plant had to evacuated. About 136,000 people within a zone extending for 10 km were advised to stay young.

Some analysts estimated that somewhere between $20 and $130 billion, depending on how long the crisis persists could be compensation claims.

S & P said that the probability that Tepco very high, but an increase in the radiation from the nuclear power plant leaks would get exceptional support from the Government was the risk of further assessments could charge cuts.

Delay
While the Government was trying to navigate the political minefield around the compensation plan, a further setback confronted 240 km north of Tokyo workers at the site of Fukushima Daiichi after a water leak in one of the reactors of this week was discovered.

TEPCO said on Friday that the discovery of the leaking water from the affected plant No. 1 reactor set up his plan to a more permanent cooling system for the installation could complicate. Some outside experts were skeptical for weeks over Japan's plan to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi reactors from January.

Kaieda said, a delay in this timetable is now likely.

"I think this is an important factor, which require a change in Tokyo Electric roadmap to bring the situation under control," said Kaieda.

Early in the week, Tepco said it had sealed a leak of radioactive water outside the plant No 3 reactor. The No. 2 reactor developed similar leaks with liquid glass and other materials were sealed in April.

The 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that followed killed more than 15,000 people, said the national policy agency. More than 9,500 employees are missing.

Since the disaster of the work disabled Fukushima Daiichi cooling systems, Tepco has on the reactors of catastrophic meltdowns prevent water poured. The utility has by encrypted means for storing the contaminated water, of which some has leaked into the ocean to find.

The world's worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century Tokyo, prompted to rethink their energy policy, which strongly to rely on nuclear power as the most important alternative to fossil fuels.

Last week, Prime Minister Naoto Kan told another power utility to close a nuclear power plant in an earthquake-prone area. He moved both applause for bold action and critics a rash and poorly planned directive said fire for what step was.

Movement kindled fears that budget and Enterprise power outages take roles in the summer when electricity use is the highest.

TEPCO said on Friday that it planned to closed, since the March 11 quake and the restart by the end of July, that it should be conventional thermal plants able enough power supply to meet peak demand.

Kaieda said, who do their best to prevent power outages Government.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Residents allows first visits to nuclear zone

6:36 PM allows, first, nuclear, Residents, visits No Comments

TOKYO - over 100 evacuated in the exclusion zone to Japan's troubled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant Tuesday for a short visit membership were to collect from their homes.

The trip was the first time the Government felt secure enough in the security of the area even short trips it will sanction has. People are pushing hard for weeks for the permission to check on their homes.

The evacuated - only a fraction of the tens of thousands forced to flee as the work of radiation began leaking after 11 March earthquake and tsunami government chartered buses for the two-hour visit on board.

You have been with protective suits, goggles and face masks carry the zone have been made available and issued plastic bags, to put their stuff. They were also certain dosimeters radiation levels and Walkie-talkies monitor.

All were for radiation contamination after leaving the 12-mile (20 km) can be seen.

More visits are planned in the coming months, but residents fear that they can return never for good.

Many had was secretly sneaking back into the zone during the day, but the Government, concerned about security and the possibility of theft - enforce stricter began road-blocks and imposing fines on 22 April.

Official visits were seen as a compromise, to take into account the security and the wishes of the inhabitants.

Nine towns and villages are subject to the No. go zone order, and some are more on the alert for a possible evacuation in the near future. Tens of thousands of residents of the area live still in evacuation shelters, although many of the houses of relatives or apartments at other locations across the country have scattered.

Government officials and the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the Dai-Ichi course, have said that it could be six to nine months before the residents could return to resume their lives. But they admit that this is a best case scenario.

Continue to repair the battle workers and to stabilize the plant, but it radioactive in some areas progress remains high, slow and dangerous.

Copyright 2011, the associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

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China's nuclear policy: 'Build, Build, Baby!'

2:28 AM Build, Chinas, nuclear, policy No Comments

Watching Japan?s nuclear drama unfold across the East China Sea, China is glued to the edge of its front-row seat.

There is a good reason for the rapt attention: In addition to fears that radiation from Japan could somehow reach its shores, China has more ongoing and planned nuclear construction than any other country ? about half of the world?s total.

While it has joined governments in Europe and the United States in announcing a safety review of its nuclear power sector, the pressure to complete its nuclear projects ? both those under way and on the drawing board ? is intense.

And its record in keeping corruption and mismanagement at bay in construction projects is checkered, to say the least.

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?One wonders how long a pause Chinese officials and businesses will feel they can actually take in examining the nuclear power issue,? says Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. ?China?s demand for energy ? if policy planners are correct about economic projections ? is like a freight train that is accelerating, and the demand is only growing.?

China?s power consumption grew 14 percent in 2010, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. At the same time, China?s leadership is aggressively trying to wean the country off coal, a huge source of air pollution and associated health issues in China.

In the last decade, Beijing has made nuclear power a central component in its energy strategy. China has 13 operating nuclear reactors producing nearly 2 percent of its total power output, but there are another 27 reactors under construction, 50 more planned and more than 100 proposed. With new reactors coming every year, China is aiming for a tenfold increase in its nuclear generating capacity by 2020, with rapid growth projected to continue until 2050.

Reason for pause
As the struggle to contain radiation was beginning at damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima, in neighboring Japan, Beijing called for a comprehensive safety check and revision of safety standards for all nuclear plants in China.

"Safety is our top priority in developing nuclear power plants," the State Council, the power core of China?s central government, announced on March 16.

Coming from the State Council the edict carries weight.

?The Fukushima tragedy really gave the Chinese a serious wake-up call on the importance of nuclear safety,? said Zhou Yun, a Chinese nuclear security expert from China doing post-doctoral research at Harvard University?s Belfer Center.

But the accident in Japan does not mean China will move away from nuclear power, analysts agree. And it seems unlikely to significantly slow nuclear plant building.

Regulatory body needs bodies, teeth
Under the State Council's order, power plants and other nuclear facilities that are operational or under construction will be inspected, said Zhou. But the new standards will be imposed only on plants that have either not yet been approved or have not advanced beyond site preparation.

Significantly, the nuclear oversight body also is limited both in technical capacity and clout in the Chinese government hierarchy, she said.

The National Nuclear Safety Administration is a division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China, several steps removed from the State Council. On the other hand, the state-owned nuclear power companies ? China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and China National Nuclear Corp. ? report directly to the council.

?In a country like China ? or more generally in Asia ? you have to show respect to people with higher titles,? said Zhou. ?That?s why people argue that the NNSA should have a higher level, directly under the State Council, not just a group or division or subdivision under Environmental Protection.?

The elevation of the nuclear safety agency, ?making it an independent regulatory body with authority,? was one of several recommendations made in a January 2011 report by the State Council Research Office to keep pace with safety issues in the nuclear industry.

The research office also warned that safety could be compromised by a growing shortage of technical expertise ? particularly among regulators because their salaries are not keeping pace with those of workers in the plants.

The challenge to technical inspectors is complicated by the variety of power plant designs China has in operation?with technology imported from France, Canada and Russia and the United States, as well as a domestic nuclear reactor design based largely on the French technology.

Finally, there is concern that this rapid growth in nuclear facilities presents not only a potential danger from the plants, but from the stress the growth puts on the nuclear supply chain, including nuclear fuel suppliers, transport systems and waste disposal sites.

Growing awareness, anxiety
Until now, government and business advocates of nuclear power in China have been largely untroubled by public opposition to nuclear power.

The only exception has been in Hong Kong, which operates with greater freedoms than China?s mainland, under a democratically elected local government.

When the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station was built about 30 miles from Hong Kong, and opened in 1994, it did so over vocal opposition in Hong Kong, where more than 1 million people signed a petition to halt the project.

Two minor radiation leaks in the plant within the past year ? which management said were contained within the plant ? have revived unease and debate among Hong Kong legislators, but there has been no such open discussion in mainland China.

?For the most part, people did not pay much attention before the Fukushima nuclear incident,? said Zhou, the Harvard researcher.

But that is rapidly changing, she said. Chinese cyberspace is filled with discussion about Japan and nuclear safety. Anxiety about a possible impact from the leaked radiation prompted many Chinese to hoard salt and wear paper masks in misguided attempts to protect themselves.

Even so, China?s citizenry is more informed than in the past ? in part because of government reforms and more recently because of an explosion in access to information technology.

They are increasingly aware of corner cutting in construction that has had deadly effects ? such as in Sichuan, where dozens of schools collapsed in the 2008 earthquake there due to shoddy materials and construction, killing thousands of children.

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And in a major corruption crackdown in the railway ministry that is still unfolding, it emerged that one of the guilty parties had allowed use of a cheap chemical hardening agents for its high-speed rail system, calling into question their safety for trains moving up to 250 mph. The Chinese rail network has been accused of pushing the trains beyond the recommended speeds.

Corruption and greed also were cited as key reasons behind the melamine-tainted baby formula scandal that hit Chinese consumers in 2008.

The potential for catastrophic consequences offers some hope that the Chinese government will see its nuclear power industry as an area where it has too much at stake to allow scandal, said Eberstadt, of the American Enterprise Institute.

?There is huge capital investment,? in nuclear power, he said. ?The central government is inescapably responsible for their performance in a way that they arguably are not for dispersed and decentralized problems with the food chain supply.?

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Nonetheless, Fukushima has put nuclear power on the radar for a populace that was previously focused on enjoying its benefits.

?Internet users spent a lot of time blogging and in group forums discussing the Fukushima incident and its consequences,? said Zhou.

?People suddenly realize that China is building a lot of nuclear power plants. They check the map and find 27 or 28 under construction,? she said. ?So they start questioning the government:? Do we really have a nuclear safety culture???

2011 msnbc.com Reprints

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Germany a model for post nuclear power age

7:43 AM Germany, model, nuclear, power No Comments

BERLIN?? Germany is determined to show the world how abandoning nuclear energy can be done.

The world's fourth-largest economy stands alone among leading industrialized nations in its decision to stop using nuclear energy because of its inherent risks. It is betting billions on expanding the use of renewable energy to meet power demands instead.

The transition was supposed to happen slowly over the next 25 years, but is now being accelerated in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant disaster, which Chancellor Angela Merkel has called a "catastrophe of apocalyptic dimensions."

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Berlin's decision to take seven of its 17 reactors offline for three months for new safety checks has provided a glimpse into how Germany might wean itself from getting nearly a quarter of its power from atomic energy to none.

And experts say Germany's phase-out provides a good map that countries such as the United States, which use a similar amount of nuclear power, could follow. The German model would not work, however, in countries like France, which relies on nuclear energy for more than 70 percent of its power and has no intention of shifting.

"If we had the winds of Texas or the sun of California, the task here would be even easier," said Felix Matthes of Germany's renowned Institute for Applied Ecology. "Given the great potential in the U.S., it would be feasible there in the long run too, even though it would necessitate huge infrastructure investments."

Nuclear power has been very unpopular in Germany ever since radioactivity from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster drifted across the country. A center-left government a decade ago penned a plan to abandon the technology for good by 2021, but Merkel's government last year amended it to extend the plants' lifetime by an average of 12 years. That plan was put on hold after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami compromised nuclear power plants in Japan, and is being re-evaluated as the safety of all of Germany's nuclear reactors is being rechecked.

Germany currently gets 23 percent of its energy from nuclear power ? about as much as the U.S. Its ambitious plan to shut down its reactors will require at least ?150 billion ($210 billion) investment in alternative energy sources, which experts say will likely lead to higher electricity prices.

Germany now gets 17 percent of its electricity from renewable energies, 13 percent from natural gas and more than 40 percent from coal. The Environment Ministry says in 10 years renewable energy will contribute 40 percent of the country's overall electricity production.

The government has been vague on a total price tag for the transition, but it said last year about ?20 billion ($28 billion) a year will be needed, acknowledging that ?75 billion ($107 billion) alone will be required through 2030 to install offshore wind farms.

The president of Germany's Renewable Energy Association, Dietmar Schuetz, said the government should create a more favorable regulatory environment to help in bringing forward some ?150 billion investment in alternative energy sources this decade by businesses and homeowners.

Last year, German investment in renewable energy topped ?26 billion ($37 billion) and secured 370,000 jobs, the government said.

After taking seven reactors off the grid last week, officials hinted the oldest of them may remain switched off for good, but assured consumers there are no worries about electricity shortages as the country is a net exporter.

"We can guarantee that the lights won't go off in Germany," Environment Ministry spokeswoman Christiane Schwarte said.

Most of the country's leaders now seem determined to swiftly abolish nuclear power, possibly by 2020, and several conservative politicians, including the chancellor, have made a complete U-turn on the issue.

Vice Chancellor Guido Westerwelle said Wednesday "we must learn from Japan" and check the safety of the country's reactors but also make sure viable alternatives are in place.

"It would be the wrong consequence if we turn off the safest atomic reactors in the world, and then buy electricity from less-safe reactors in foreign countries," he told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper.

But Schuetz insists that "we can replace nuclear energy even before 2020 with renewable energies, producing affordable and ecologically sound electricity."

But someone will have to foot the bill.

"Consumers must be prepared for significantly higher electricity prices in the future," said Wolfgang Franz, head of the government's independent economic advisory body. Merkel last week also warned that tougher safety rules for the remaining nuclear power plants "would certainly mean that electricity gets more expensive."

The German utilities' BDEW lobby group said long-term price effects could not be determined until the government spells out its nuclear reduction plans. Matthes' institute says phasing out nuclear power by 2020 is feasible by better capacity management and investment that would only lead to a price increase of 0.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In Germany, the producers of renewable energy ? be it solar panels on a homeowner's rooftop or a farm of wind mills ? are paid above-market prices to make sure their investment breaks even, financed by a 3.5 cents per kilowatt-hour tax paid by all electricity customers.

For a typical German family of four who pay about ?1,000 ($1,420) a year to use about 4,500 kilowatt-hours, the tax amounts to ?157 ($223).

The tax produced ?8.2 billion ($11.7 billion) in Germany in 2010 and it is expected to top ?13.5 billion ($19.2 billion) this year. The program ? which has been copied by other countries and several U.S. states such as California ? is the backbone of the country's transition toward renewable energies.

"Our ideas work. Exiting the nuclear age would also be possible in a country like the U.S.," Schuetz said.

Another factor likely to drive up electricity prices is that relying on renewable energies requires a huge investment in the electricity grid to cope with more decentralized and less reliable sources of power. Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle just announced legislation to speed up grid construction but gave no cost estimate.

And even if non-nuclear power is more expensive, Germans seeing images daily of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear complex seem willing to pay the higher price.

Ralph Kampwirth, spokesman for Lichtblick AG, Germany's biggest utility offering electricity exclusively from renewable sources, said since the Fukushima disaster it has been getting nearly three times more new clients than normal, up from 300 to more than 800 per day, despite prices slightly above average.

Sticking with nuclear power would also have its costs and require public funds.

The only two new nuclear reactors currently under construction in Europe, in France and in Finland, both have been plagued by long delays and seen costs virtually doubling, to around ?4 billion ($5.7 billion) and ?5.3 billion ($7.5 billion) respectively.

The disposal of spent nuclear fuel is also a costly problem, but it has no set price tag in Germany because the government has failed to find a sustainable solution.

Story: U.S. storage sites overfilled with spent nuclear fuel

Many decades-old reactors are highly profitable as their initial cost has been written off, but they now face higher costs as regulators push for safety upgrades in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. One of the most pressing ? and costly ? requirements is likely to be a mandatory upgrade to reinforce all nuclear power plants' outer shell to withstand a crash of a commercial airliner.

Utility EnBW pulled the plug for good on one reactor temporarily shut down by the government because the new requirements made operating it "no longer economically viable."

But even if Germany abandons nuclear energy, some of Europe's 143 nuclear reactors will still sit right on its borders.

Since France and other nations are firmly committed to nuclear power, shutting down all reactors across Europe won't happen, but Merkel is now pushing for common safety standards. The topic will be discussed at the European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

Merkel said the 27-nation bloc, which has standardized "the size of apples or the shape of bananas," needs joint standards for nuclear power plants.

"Everybody in Europe would be equally affected by an accident at a nuclear power plant in Europe," Merkel said.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Litany of failures in Japan nuclear industry

9:07 AM failures, industry, Japan, Litany, nuclear No Comments

TOKYO - behind Japan's escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a comfy relationship with government regulators often willing to overlook safety lapses.

Leaks of radioactive steam and workers contaminated with radiation are just part of the disturbing catalog of accidents that have occurred over the years and been belatedly reported to the public, if at all.

In one case, workers hand-mixed uranium in stainless steel buckets, instead of processing by machines, so the fuel could be reused, exposing hundreds of workers to radiation. Two later died.

"Everything is a secret," said Kei Sugaoka, a former nuclear power plant engineer in Japan who now lives in California. "There's not enough transparency in the industry."

Sugaoka worked at the same utility that runs the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant where workers are racing to prevent a full meltdown following Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami.

In 1989 Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators is planning. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened - for years. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs.

The legacy of scandals and cover-ups over Japan's half-century reliance on nuclear power has strained its credibility with the public. Mistrust has been renewed this past week with the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant that. No. evidence has emerged of officials hiding information in this catastrophe. But the vagueness and scarcity of details offered by the government and Tepco - and news that seems to grow worse each day - are fueling public anger and employment frustration.

Story: A crisis in confidence at world's atomic watchdog

"We don't know what is true." "That makes US worried," said Taku Harada, chief executive of the Tokyo-based Internet startup Orinoco. Harada said his many American friends are being urged to leave the capital while the Japanese government says the area is safe, probably to avoid triggering panic.

The difference is unsettling, he said. He has rented an office in Osaka 250 miles (400 kilometers) to the southwest to give his 12 employees the option of leaving Tokyo.

"We still do not know the long-term effects of radiation," he said. "That's a big question."

Tokyo Electric Power Co. official Takeshi Makigami says experts are doing their utmost to get the reactors under control.

"We are doing all that is possible," he told reporters.

Worried that over dependence on imported oil could undermine Japan's humming economy, the government threw its support into nuclear power, and the industry boomed in the profile and influence. The country has 54 nuclear plants, which provide 30 percent of the nation's energy needs, is building two more and studying proposals for 12 more plants.

Before Friday's earthquake and tsunami that triggered the Fukushima crisis and sent the economy reeling, Japan's 11 utility companies, many of them nuclear plant operators, were worth $139 billion on the stock market.

Tepco - the utility that supplies power for Japan's capital and biggest city - accounted for nearly a third of that market capitalization, though its shares have been Europe since the disasters, falling 65 percent over the past week to 759 yen ($9.6) Thursday. Last month, it got a boost from the government, which renewed authorization for Tepco to operate Fukushima's 40-year-old unit 1 reactor for another 10 years.

With such strong government support and a culture that ordinarily frowns upon dissent, regulators tend not to push for rigorous safety, said Amory Lovins, an expert on energy policy and founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

"You add all that up and it's a recipe for people to cut corners in operation and regulation," Lovins said.

Story: Donations to Japan start at slow pace

The United States, Japan's close ally, has also raised questions about the coziness between Japanese regulators and industry and implicitly questioned Tokyo's forthrightness over the Fukushima crisis. The director of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. ambassador this week issued a bleaker assessments about the dangers at the plans than the Japanese government or Tepco.

Competence and transparency issues aside, some say it's just too dangerous to build nuclear plants in Japan like in earthquake-prone nation, where land can liquefy during a major temblor.

"You're building on a heap of tofu," said Philip white of Tokyo-based citizens' nuclear information center, a group of scientists and activists who have opposed nuclear power since 1975.

"There is absolutely no reason to trust them," he said of those that run Japan's nuclear power plants.

Japan is haunted by memories of past nuclear accidents:

In 1999, fuel-reprocessing workers were reported to be using stainless steel buckets to hand-mix uranium in flagrant violation of safety standards at the Tokaimura plant. Two workers later died in what was the deadliest accident in the Japanese industry's history.At least 37 workers were exposed to low doses of radiation at a 1997 fire and explosion at a nuclear reprocessing plant operated in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo. The operator, Donen, later acknowledged it had initially suppressed information about the fire.Hundreds of people were exposed to radiation and thousands evacuated in the more serious 1999 Tokaimura accident involving JCO co. The government assigned the accident a level 4 rating on the international nuclear event scale ranging from 1 to 7, with 7 being most serious.In 2007, a powerful earthquake ripped into Japan's northwest coast, killing at least eight people and causing malfunctions at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, including radioactive water ex, burst pipes and fires. Radiation did not leak from the facility.

Tepco has safety violations that stretch back decades. In 1978, control rods at one Fukushima reactor dislodged but the accident was not reported because utilities were not required to notify the government of such accidents. In 2006, is Tepco reported a planning negligible amount of radioactive steam seeped from the Fukushima - and blew beyond the compound.

Now with the public on edge over safety, Tatsumi Tanaka, head of risk hedge and a crisis management expert, believes the government would find it difficult to approve new plants in the immediate future.

Tanaka says that, true to Japan's wipe nuclear power record, officials bungled the latest crisis, failing to set up a special crisis team and appoint credible outside experts.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., regulators and the government spokesman have been holding nationally televised news conferences, sometimes several a day, on the latest developments at planning the Fukushima.

But the reactors have been volatile, changing by the hour, with multiple explosions, fires and leaks of radiation. The utility, regulators and government spokesmen often send conflicting information, adding to the confusion and the perception they aren't being forthright, says Tanaka.

"They are only making people's fears worse," he said. "The onset what are the possible scenarios that might happen they need to study at in about five stages and then figure out what the response should be."

Copyright 2011 the associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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