Countries seek nuclear stress tests after Japan crisis

PARIS (Reuters) - Government ministers and officials from nearly 30 nuclear energy producing countries called on Tuesday for safety tests on all reactors, after the disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant sparked concern over standards.

A majority of delegates at talks hosted under France's G20 chairmanship supported stress tests that would determine how well nuclear plants could withstand major disasters, like the earthquake and tsunami that rocked Fukushima in March.

"The Fukushima accident in Japan shook us all and the need arose very quickly to draw lessons, to improve and lift our standards and cooperation on nuclear safety," French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told a news conference after chairing the talks.

Group of Eight leaders agreed at a summit in France last month that more stringent nuclear safety rules were needed.

Currently, there are no mandatory, international nuclear safety regulations, only recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which national regulators are in charge of enforcing.

"Stress test or resilience tests are a first priority to identify vulnerabilities," said Germany's Deputy Environment Minister, Ursula Heinen-Esser, adding reviewing and strengthening international conventions was the next step.

In addition to finding a consensus on stress tests of nuclear safety, the ministers and officials also agreed on the need to reinforce the IAEA's role on nuclear safety.

Swiss Energy Minister Doris Leuthard said countries should first ensure they were respecting existing international conventions and then submit to mandatory peer reviews.

"When you think my authorities are good enough and the peer reviews are welcome, why don't we accept that it is mandatory? Why don't we give transparency to our populations?" she asked.

GROWING CONCERNS

The meeting, co-hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operations and Development, aimed to hammer out a common ground among major nuclear producing countries ahead of an IAEA ministerial meeting on June 20-24 in Vienna.

The Fukushima disaster has driven nuclear energy up the political agenda especially in Europe, where public concern over the dangers of reactors is surging.

Countries within the European Union have already agreed to proceed with stress tests on the region's 143 reactors and the bloc has called for them to be carried out worldwide.

Germany's government decided last month to phase out all of the country's nuclear reactors by 2022 due to public opposition following Japan's disaster, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday France could benefit from the end of nuclear energy in Germany by selling electricity to its bigger neighbour.

"If they stop their reactors, then they will have to be replaced. We'll be candidates to sell electricity," he said during a round-table on small and mid-sized companies.

France is the world's most nuclear-dependent country, producing 80 percent of its power from 58 reactors, but public opposition is also growing. An opinion poll published Saturday found just over three-quarters of those surveyed back a gradual withdrawal over the next 25 to 30 years from nuclear technology.

The Ifop survey found only 22 percent of respondents supported building new nuclear power stations, 15 percent backed a swift decommissioning and 62 percent a gradual one.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

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