Japan PM sorry for nuclear mix-up

8 July 2011 Last updated at 10:00 GMT Naoto Kan has been under huge pressure over the scandal Japan's prime minister has apologised for causing confusion by ordering nuclear firms to carry out safety tests on their reactors, weeks after his government said the plants were safe.

Naoto Kan said his order for "stress tests" on Wednesday came too late.

Local officials and energy firms say they no longer know whether they can restart their reactors or not.

Two-thirds of Japan's reactors have remained inactive since the devastating earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami levelled towns along the country's north-east coast, leaving thousands homeless and killing more than 14,000 people.

The disaster also wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing radiation leaks and a national review of nuclear power.

After carrying out inspections, ministers announced last month that the country's nuclear plants were safe to reopen.

Continue reading the main story 11 Mar: Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant struck by huge earthquake and tsunami16 Mar: 20km evacuation zone declared around plant17 Apr: Plant owner Tepco says crisis will be under control by end of the year20 May: Tepco President Masataka Shimizu resigns as firm posts losses of 1.25tn yen ($15.3bn; ?9.4bn) for the past financial year2 Jun: Naoto Kan survives no-confidence vote over his handling of quake and nuclear crisesBut in a surprise announcement on Wednesday, the government said stress tests were needed - giving no timescale and few details of what the tests would entail.

The mayor of the southern town of Genkai, who had already given his consent for the local power station to be restarted, held an angry news conference on Thursday denouncing the government's U-turn.

On Friday, Shikoku Electric Power announced it was postponing plans to restart two reactors at Ikata because it did not believe it could get public support.

Other local officials and power firms have appealed to the government to clarify its policy.

Mr Kan told a cabinet meeting on Friday he was sorry, saying: "My instruction was inadequate and came too late."

His chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano acknowledged that the government needed to be clearer.

"We realise that we need to clarify the situation, but right now we are discussing exactly what the next step will be," he said.

The government has said it was satisfied that Japan's plants were safe, but the stress tests were designed to allay people's fears.

Mr Kan has been under huge pressure over his handling of the nuclear crisis and the reconstruction of areas devastated by the tsunami and earthquake.

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Nuclear power referendum in Italy

12 June 2011 Last updated at 10:20 GMT By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Rome Greenpeace says the technology is as dangerous as in Japan Italians have begun voting in four referendums, the most important of which is whether people want Italy to resume nuclear power production.

Anti-nuclear campaigners say the Fukushima disaster in Japan has helped sway public opinion against nuclear.

The referendums are also being seen as a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Italy's last nuclear programme was abandoned in 1987 following the Chernobyl disaster.

The government says a nuclear industry is vital to supply about 20% of electricity needs by 2020.

But the disaster at the Fukushima plant, which was crippled by the tsunami and earthquake that hit northern Japan in March, has changed the debate entirely.

Now Salvatore Barbera, from the campaign group Greenpeace, says people have seen the dangers and will reject nuclear energy in the referendum

"This is an old technology, it's dangerous as we saw in Fukushima," he said.

"It's dangerous when it's operating, it's dangerous when you have nuclear waste, no-one in the world knows how to deal with it, and now it's also expensive."

'Environmentally friendly'

If Italy does follow Germany and rejects nuclear power, that will be particularly disappointing to many in industry who believe alternative sources of electricity are not reliable.

Silvio Rossignoli from the aerospace company Sekur says only nuclear can guarantee supplies.

"We want to have nuclear because it's environmentally friendly and it's much cleaner than all the coal and gas," he said.

"It's not depending on importing from other countries, where you never know what happens."

Italians are also being asked to vote on water privatisation issues and whether government ministers can be exempted from court cases.

That is especially important to Mr Berlusconi, who is currently involved with four trials.

There is a lot at stake in this referendum, with the results due on Monday.

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IAEA: Syria site 'likely nuclear'

24 May 2011 Last updated at 16:09 GMT The US said Syria's reactor was similar to a North Korean one A Syrian site bombed by Israeli jets in 2007 was "very likely" a nuclear reactor, the UN's atomic watchdog says.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been investigating US claims that Syria was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korean help.

The strongest IAEA report yet on Syria came after several years of blocked investigations, and is likely to increase the pressure on Damascus.

Israel bombed the remote desert site of the alleged reactor in September 2007.

Syria says the site - near Deir Alzour - was an unused military facility under construction. It also denied having any nuclear links to North Korea, which has itself denied transferring nuclear technology to Syria.

But the confidential IAEA report, obtained by the BBC, says the bombed building was similar in type and size to a reactor and that samples taken from the site indicated a connection with nuclear activities.

The report's conclusions are likely to raise international pressure on Damascus, says the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna.

It opens the door for Western powers to push for Syria to be referred to the UN Security council, an action last taken against Iran in 2006. That step could come at the next meeting of the IAEA's board of governors in June.

Syria is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which gives it the right to enrich its own fuel for civil nuclear power, under inspection from the IAEA.

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