Japan crisis deepens Europe's nuke rift

BRUSSELS: Japan's atomic crisis has widened an old chasm in Europe between critics calling for a nuclear-free world and advocates who see it as a vital source of energy for decades to come.

Jolted by images of Japanese workers scrambling to prevent a new Chernobyl, the European Union decided to test the ability of the continent's 143 nuclear reactors to survive earthquakes, floods and terrorist attacks.

EU energy ministers will now discuss the details of these so-called "stress tests" at an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Monday that was convened to assess the impact of events in Japan on the 27-nation bloc.

Critics of nuclear energy say that's not enough.

Sigmar Gabriel, head of Germany's Social Democrat opposition, predicted the "end of the atomic era" as he announced plans backed by the chancellor of nuclear-free Austria to gather one million signatures to demand EU legislation on the matter.

Under a new law approved by the European Parliament in December, citizens can force the European Commission to draft legislation if enough signatures are gathered.

The incident at Fukushima No. 1 plant, caused by an earthquake and tsunami, has raised public fears about nuclear energy, with 100,000 protesters in Germany demanding the closure of that country's nuclear plants.

The emergency in Japan has brought back bad memories in Europe of a disaster that hit closer to home, the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in the Soviet Union in 1986.