BELGIUM - Japan crisis prompts nuclear tests

BRUSSELS (AP):

Shocked into action by Japan's atomic crisis, European energy officials agreed yesterday to apply stress tests on nuclear power plants and Germany moved to switch off seven ageing reactors, one of them permanently.

The European Union's energy chief called for a reassessment of the 27-nation bloc's energy policy, and questioned what role nuclear power should have in the future.

"We have to ask ourselves: Can we in Europe, within time, secure our energy needs without nuclear power plants?" EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger told German ARD television.