All 50 of Japan's nuclear power plants have been switched off following routine maintenance checks carried out in the wake of last year's tsunami, which swamped reactors at Fukushima and sent them into meltdown.

But the town assembly of Oi, in the central prefecture of Fukui, gave the green light to the re-firing of units No. 3 and 4 at the Oi atomic power station, operated by Kansai Electric Power Co.

Mayor Shinobu Tokioka will now take the assembly's decision into account when he consults an expert panel on whether or not to approve the restart.

Under informal strictures imposed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the governor of Fukui prefecture must also give his backing before a final decision is taken by the premier and a small group of senior ministers.

Before the Fukushima crisis, power-guzzling but resource-poor Japan relied on nuclear energy to produce a third of its electricity.

The ensuing reactor shutdowns have seen power companies bring mothballed fossil fuel plants back online in a bid to meet demand, with utilities taking huge financial hits from the cost of increased coal and oil imports.

With Japan's sticky summer on the horizon -- the peak time of year for electricity usage as air conditioning units are cranked up -- consumers and businesses are being asked to cut back on use, amid warnings that some areas could see supply fall up to 15 percent short of demand.

Kansai Electric, which booked a $3 billion loss last year due to higher fuel costs, says it would be able to meet summer demand if the two Oi reactors were brought back into operation.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Tokyo (AFP) May 14, 2012 - TEPCO, the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Japan's northeast coast, posted a bigger-than-expected annual loss of $9.67 billion on Monday and warned of tough times ahead.

Tokyo Electric Power said its 781-billion-yen net loss came in a year in which it was hit with massive costs to deal with reactor meltdowns, as well as increased imports of fossil fuels to make up for a nuclear power shortfall.

The net loss was worse than a previous prediction for a 708.0 billion yen shortfall and reflects an increase in projected compensation payouts to those affected by the world's worst atomic disaster in a generation.

Revenue was 5.35 trillion yen, down from 5.37 trillion yen a year earlier.

Naomi Hirose, the company's incoming president, warned that "unexpected situations" this summer could make its already shaky energy supply even tougher as Japan's atomic reactors remain offline.

"Even if we have power supply to barely meet demand this summer, it doesn't mean we will be fine," he told a press briefing in Tokyo.

However, the embattled firm said its loss in the current fiscal year through March 2013 would come in at a much lower 100 billion yen, while sales were set to rise to 6.0 trillion yen on an expected economic pickup and rate hikes.

TEPCO's earnings come less than a week after Japan's government confirmed it will take a controlling stake in the firm, effectively nationalising one of the world's largest utilities.

Tokyo will inject one trillion yen as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt, a plan it said would see TEPCO come under "temporary state control."

On Monday, the firm's president Toshio Nishizawa said fuel costs are likely to jump this year after Japan shut down the nuclear reactors that once supplied about one-third of its electricity, following last year's atomic crisis.

"This increase in fuel cost is based on an assumption that we will have no nuclear power in the year (to March)," Nishizawa said.

He added that the utility expected industry to accept rate hikes, while residential rates are also set to rise, as the economy picks up pace.

"In the last fiscal year, business operators had their production levels below full capacity," Nishizawa told a press briefing in Tokyo.

"But their production levels are recovering in the second half of the year, which we expect to continue in the new fiscal year," he said.

TEPCO said the amount of electricity it sold in the latest period fell 8.6 percent as clients ushered in both mandatory and voluntary energy saving measures in the summer when demand peaked.

As the sole provider of electricity to Tokyo and a vast surrounding region in eastern Japan, TEPCO is responsible for maintaining a stable power supply to its millions of customers.

But it is staring at an enormous bill with decommissioning of four crippled reactors and the clean up of the surrounding area expected to take decades.

With public distrust in nuclear energy running high, Japan's entire pool of atomic reactors are offline, leaving TEPCO and fellow utilities with no choice but to fire up expensive fossil-fuel-powered plants.

The giant utility tried to reign in costs by chopping salaries and reducing its procurement costs, but it faced skyrocketing fuel expenses to power old thermal power plants.

bur-pb-hih-oh/pdh

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Tokyo (AFP) May 13, 2012 - Japan's hard-hit manufacturers are facing a long summer with businesses making everything from ice cream to crayons fretting production may be hampered as the now nuclear-free nation faces energy cuts.

A hot summer would usually be good news for Ezaki Glico, a major snacks and ice cream maker, with soaring temperatures increasing appetites for cooling foods. But looming power shortages could make satisfying them hard.

"If the temperature goes up very high this summer, and if the government asks us to cut electricity consumption a lot, our ice cream business will be seriously affected," a company spokesman told AFP.

"We may have to make more ice cream before" power shortages reach their peak, he added.

Two weeks after the last working nuclear reactor was shuttered in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, energy-hungry Japan is struggling to plug the power gap.

The government has not yet issued a target for industrial power cuts, but significant reductions seem certain -- reportedly as high as 20 percent in the Kansai region, which includes the commercial hubs of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.

The world's worst nuclear accident in a generation, sparked by a devastating quake-tsunami disaster in March 2011, turned Japanese public sentiment against nuclear power, which had previously supplied one-third of the resource-poor nation's electricity.

That has stoked a turn to expensive alternatives with utility Kansai Electric last month booking a $3 billion annual loss on the increased cost of using previously mothballed fossil fuel plants.

In order to be fired up again, power stations must now pass stress tests and get the consent of their host communities -- it is this last hurdle that is proving hardest to overcome.

Last month, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government gave the green light to restart reactors at one nuclear plant after they cleared stress tests approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But regulators have yet to convince nervous residents living near the facility.

Energy shortage fears are rippling across Japan with Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, repeatedly warning that the nation's economy "would collapse" if none of its 50 reactors was restarted.

The government is to seek a 20 percent reduction in electricity consumption in Kansai, in the west of the country, reports said Sunday.

But when some offices and factories in the area cut power use by about 15 percent last summer it proved barely doable for many firms, including major crayon maker Sakura Color Products, based in Osaka.

"We had a bare minimum of lights on while turning off about half of the computers and elevators at our offices," a company spokesman said.

This year the crayon producer is mulling a variety of coping measures, including moving production partly to China.

"We are considering producing more in advance (of cuts) or even shifting part of the production to our plant in Shanghai and importing back from there," the spokesman said.

"Otherwise, we won't be able to cut as much as 20 percent of our power use."

Utilities for the northern island of Hokkaido and southern Kyushu also fear they will struggle to provide enough power to keep the lights on as air conditioning gets cranked up during Japan's often sweltering summer.

The government is considering asking those regions to cut electricity use by about 10 percent, the newspaper reports said.

Satoshi Osanai, economist at Daiwa Institute of Research, said Japanese manufacturers who had barely coped with the power crunch last summer may be in for an even tougher time as the mercury climbs over the next couple of months.

"Manufacturers managed to keep the production levels up last year by operating plants on weekends instead of weekdays or avoiding peak hours," he said.

"But suppose they have to cut as much as 20 percent of their power use... it could drive more manufacturers out of the country."

However, ice cream maker Ezaki Glico, also based in Osaka, does have a plan in place if the summer is not too hot -- producing more chocolate and less ice cream.

"If it gets really hot, we usually sell lots of ice cream," its spokesman said. "During a cool summer, we sell more chocolate."

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Bucharest (AFP) May 13, 2012 - New Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Sunday that he backed building two more nuclear reactors to ensure the nation's energy independence, though four of six investors have pulled out.

"My view is that we should try to continue this project, while respecting all safety standards of course, especially after the Fukushima catastrophe," Ponta told the private Romanian television Pro TV.

"Romania's energy independence is crucial," he added to explain his support for a project estimated to cost four billion euros ($5.2 billion).

Two reactors currently operate at the Cernavoda plant in southeastern Romania, but plans to build two more have been blocked by the 2011 withdrawal of four investors.

They are the Czech group CEZ, GDF Suez of France, the German RWE and Spanish company Iberdrola.

Germany shut down its own nuclear plants following the March 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan and all Japanese plants are also now offline.

That could pose a potential problem as Japan heads into the summer months when electricity consumption surges higher.

Brazil said last week that it had shelved plans to build new nuclear plants, but Lithuania, an eastern European country like Romania, plans to push ahead with a project to build a reactor with the Japanese group Hitachi by 2020.

Romania's two nuclear plants use Candu-type Canadian technology and produce about 18 percent of the country's electricity needs.

The country's new centre-left government plans to seek a moratorium on shale gas drilling however, putting on hold plans by US oil giant Chevron to tap reserves in eastern and southern Romania.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Rome (AFP) May 10, 2012 - Italian police are searching for two men linked to the far-left Red Brigades militant group who are suspected of carrying out an attack on the head of a nuclear energy company, media reports said Thursday.

The suspects, who tried to recreate a former Red Brigades cell in 2000, are thought to be behind Monday's attack in Genoa, when a gunman shot the head of Ansaldo Nucleare in the ankle, before escaping with an accomplice.

The pair are also thought to be linked with a local convict serving time for possessing arms from former Communist countries, ANSA news agency said.

Italy's police chief Antonio Manganelli said all possible leads were being followed.

"We have no evidence on the emergence new Red Brigade groups but that does not mean that it is not possible," he said.

Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri had told reporters on Wednesday that the method used in the attack "in particular the use of a firearm and the preparation, could imply the influence of the Red Brigades".

Police were also investigating the possibility that anarchists or organised crime groups could be behind the attack, she said.

Roberto Adinolfi, a 53-year-old nuclear engineer, was followed by the gunman and shot in the ankle as he left his home in Genoa in northwest Italy.

The gunman escaped on a motorbike with a second man waiting nearby. Police said he used a Tokarev handgun -- a brand used by the Soviet army.

Security sources said the attack was similar to one of the first shootings by the far-left Red Brigades militant group, also against Ansaldo, which is part of industrial giant Finmeccanica.

A source said there was "major concern" that the shooting could be a signal for sleeper cells to carry out more attacks or spark copycat shootings.

A total of four Ansaldo managers were victims of attacks by the Red Brigades in Genoa in the 1970s including one who was snatched from the street and released a few hours later and three who were shot and wounded in the street.

The Red Brigades emerged in the 1970s seeking to create a Marxist-Leninist state through armed struggle and were responsible for a number of murders.

Among their most notorious actions was the kidnapping and murder of Italy's former Christian Democrat prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Niamey (AFP) May 11, 2012 - Niger employees of Areva must benefit from the same compensation as their French colleagues, a Niger non-governmental organisation said Friday after a court near Paris said the French state-owned nuclear firm was liable.

The court at Melun ordered 200,000 euros ($260,000) in damages to be paid by France's state health fund to the widow of an employee of the Areva subsidiary Cominak, a Niger company which runs an Areva uranium mine at Akokan.

The deceased, Serge Venel, died of lung cancer in July 2009 at the age of 59 and worked for Cominak between 1978 and 1985.

"200,000 euros is a ridiculous sum for somebody who gave his life for this company," Ali Idrissa of the Rotab non-government organisation told AFP.

"We think that such compensation should be paid to all Areva employees including non-French nationals, and notably those people from Niger who are slowly dying because of (nuclear) radiation," he added.

Idrissa is a member of the Initiative for Transparency in the Extractive Industries (Itie) which groups NGOs, mining companies and the Niger government.

"We have for years formally established with Greenpeace that the water and the environment in uranium-producing areas are contaminated," he added.

Areva said it did "not understand" Friday's ruling as there was no proof between Venel's illness and his work at Cominak, and may appeal.

The French nuclear energy giant has operated in the world's sixth biggest uranium producer for 40 years and exploits two mines about 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) north of the capital Niamey, at Arlit and Akokan.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Berlin (AFP) May 10, 2012 - Germany's second-biggest power supplier RWE said Thursday its net profits had fallen by more than a quarter in the first three months of the year, hit by Berlin's decision to scrap nuclear power.

Net profits fell by 28 percent in the first quarter of the year to 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) on broadly flat earnings of 15.6 billion euros, the firm said in a statement.

However, the firm was bullish about the outlook for this year, saying: "After significant one-off burdens caused by energy policy decisions taken in Germany during 2011, RWE will regain ground this year."

In the wake of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, last year Berlin decided to phase out nuclear power, forcing energy suppliers to shutdown their profitable large-scale power plants.

The government also levied a tax on the reactors' fuel for their remaining lifespan.

Despite the headwinds stemming from this decision, RWE said it "continues to forecast that it will be able to end the year with an operating result and recurrent net income at 2011 levels."

The first quarter results were harmed by a comparison with the first three months of last year, because the nuclear exit decision had not yet been taken at that point.

On Wednesday, RWE's big rival E.ON also saw its net profits decline by around 24 percent but offered a sunny outlook for the rest of the year.

Investors seemed cheered by RWE's results, with shares up 0.84 percent, roughly the same gain as the wider DAX market of leading German stocks.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Paris, France (SPX) May 10, 2012 - JAEC (Jordan Atomic Energy Commission) has completed its evaluation to select a technology in order to build the first nuclear reactor in Jordan. JAEC has conducted, since the last two years, a methodical scrutiny of three technologies regarding nuclear power plant technology.

The evaluation has been performed with the objective of selecting the most appropriate technology fitting best Jordan needs and most appropriately ensuring the highest possible safety levels.

It concluded that ATMEA1 technology, developed by the French-Japanese team, made up of AREVA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and their 50/50 joint-venture ATMEA, is well fitting Jordan needs and requirements both in technical and economical terms.

This decision represents a significant milestone in the technological development of ATMEA 1, a new world-class model of 1,100 MWe nuclear power reactor.

However, JAEC also decided to continue discussions, during the next phase of its evaluation, with two qualified bidders, including AREVA-MHI-ATMEA. During that phase some outstanding topics will be reviewed in more detail and specific information from selected site and from operating company will be integrated.

This is a key achievement made by JAEC in the process of providing Jordan with a competitive and stable source of energy, allowing the Kingdom to enter into a new phase of its development.

"This confirms the trust being placed in the technology of ATMEA1 design fulfills stringent Jordan's requirements, with its highest safety level as a Generation III+ reactor, its proven technology and its superior operation performance" outlined Philippe Namy, ATMEA President.

As confirmed by the recent positive statement of the French Safety Authority ASN on the ATMEA1 safety options, ATMEA1 design integrates all necessary safety features to protect, cool and confine the reactor in all situations, meeting the most important requirements of the Jordan project and thus ensuring the highest safety to the Jordan public.

The French Japanese team is committed to working with local suppliers in Jordan and wants to build an extensive local supply chain.

The ATMEA1 reactor is a pressurized water reactor of 1,100 MWe, intended for any types of electrical networks and in particular for medium power grids. It was designed and developed by ATMEA, the 50/50 Joint Venture created in 2007 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and AREVA.

Taking support on these two parent companies, ATMEA capitalizes on their experience of about 130 nuclear power plants which are operating in the world for around 50 years, and representing approximately 3300 cumulative reactor years of operation.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Vilnius (AFP) May 9, 2012 - Lithuania's government approved draft legislation Wednesday that would allow a new nuclear power plant for the ex-Soviet Baltic republic heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies.

"This is an historic day," Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius told reporters in Vilnius, stressing the move was a key step toward "energy independence". Plans call for the plant to be up and running by 2020.

Lithuania imports more than two-thirds of its electricity and the country depends on Russian giant Gazprom for natural gas.

In March, Lithuania concluded negotiations with Japan's Hitachi regarding the future nuclear plant.

Lithuania's Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas said the Hitachi group will get a 20 percent stake in the project.

Lithuania will hold 38 percent, while fellow Baltic states Estonia and Latvia will control 22 and 20 percent respectively, he said.

With a 1,300-megawatt capacity, the new nuclear plant will cost an estimated five billion euros ($6.46 billion).

Despite the tsunami-induced disaster at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, Lithuania, a country of three million, has decided to press ahead with nuclear energy, unlike fellow European Union states Germany and Italy.

The 2009 closure of Lithuania's aging Soviet-built Ignalina nuclear power plant has resulted in higher electricity rates in Lithuania and ever-greater energy dependence on Soviet-era master Russia.

Lithuania's parliament is expected to give the green light to the project by June 28.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Brasilia (AFP) May 9, 2012 - Brazil said Wednesday it has shelved plans to build new nuclear power stations in the coming years in the wake of last year's Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The previous government led by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had planned to construct between four and eight new nuclear plants through 2030.

But the energy ministry's executive secretary, Marcio Zimmermann, was quoted as telling a forum Tuesday that there was no need for new nuclear facilities for the next 10 years.

"The last plan, which runs through 2020, does not envisage any (new) nuclear power station because there is no need for it. Demand is met with hydro-electrical power and complementary energy sources such as wind, thermal and natural gas," Zimmermann said in remarks released by the ministry Wednesday.

"The 2021 plan, as far as I know, will not consider nuclear power stations either, " he added, although he did not rule out construction of such facilities in the longer term.

"After the (2011 Fukushima) accident in Japan, not just Brazil but the entire world stopped to analyze and assess," Mauricio Tomalsquim, president of the EPE energy research firm, told the same event.

Tomalsquim said that in the next 10 years, the hydro-electrical contribution to Brazil's energy mix will fall from the current 75 percent to 67 percent while that of renewable energy sources -- wind, solar and biomass -- will rise from eight to 16 percent.

Brazil's sole nuclear power plant, located in Angra dos Reis, a coastal town near Rio, has two pressurized water reactors in operation, with outputs respectively of 657 MWe (megawatt electrical) and 1350 MWe.

After a 24-year dispute, work resumed last June on a third reactor at that facility with a projected output of 1245 MWe. It is expected to be completed in 2015.

The Angras do Reis plant currently generates around three percent of Brazil's energy production, which relies overwhelmingly on hydroelectric installations.

Economic expansion, however, is outstripping supply, resulting in occasional blackouts across regions.

Greenpeace and other environmental lobby groups oppose broadening Brazil's nuclear program, arguing that there is potential for widespread ecological damage in case of an accident.

Brazil, Latin America's dominant power, and neighboring Argentina are the only South American countries operating civilian nuclear power stations.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:51 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D