Europe in line to change nuke energy policies

BRUSSELS, April 3 (Commodity Online): Japan's unfortunate nuclear crisis prompted many nations to shift their policies towards more conventional forms of energy. Analysts said Japan crisis is proved to be a blessing in disguise for non-nucler power campaigners as it will speed the elimination of nuclear power from some European countries and render many planned projects too risky, ultimately increasing Europe's dependence on gas. The depth of change, however, still depends on how quickly Japan can stabilise the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. For a region with little history of earthquakes, tsunamis or even major power blackouts, Europe's reaction to a crisis on the other side of the world has been striking. Talk of a European nuclear renaissance had so far amounted to nothing more than half-finished plants in France and Finland, and a lot of unrealised dreams. Those dreams now appear dead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel swiftly suspended operations at seven ageing reactors in the wake of the Japanese disaster, and the nuclear issue has become a political football in a country where anti-nuclear sentiment has run high since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has vowed to push for a pan-European phase-out and promises a "hard confrontation". Italy and Poland are wavering over plans for a nuclear future. In Brussels, European Union bureaucrats see a chance to take control of an area that has long eluded them. "The European Commission is trying to identify where it can be more active, and nuclear is definitely one of those trans-boundary issues-the Commission is testing how far it can go," said Christian Egenhofer at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), an independent think-tank. "That works well for Merkel if the Commission manages to get the job done and she can keep her hands clean."