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European Commission: Claiming hike of energy prices, following Fukushima-1 accident, still premature

Oil&Gas Materials 14 April 2011 20:15 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 13 (Trend, V.Zhavoronkova)

Despite the aftermath of the accident at Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima-1, it is now premature to claim global energy prices will raise as many countries are expected to give up using nuclear power, the European Commission Energy Commissariat reported.

"It is too early to discuss whether prices will change until the full picture becomes clear to us.

The European Union continues to examine the established situation thoroughly", Marlene Holzner, spokesperson of EU Energy Commissar Gunther Oettinger, told Trend be telephone from Brussels.

A powerful earthquake and tsunami in mid-March caused accident at nuclear power plant Fukushima-1 that spread radioactive material into atmosphere. At the moment, danger level at Japan's Fukushima-1 is hiked to the max, seventh, according to the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES). This is the second case of such kind in the history of the nuclear power industry: first time the maximal danger level was assigned to the Chernobyl 1986 disaster.

Following the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant, many European countries using nuclear power said they planned to examine the state of their nuclear power plants and probably, halt their operation, which, as viewed by experts, may cause growth of interest in energy resources and hence, growth of energy prices.

Currently, there are 143 nuclear power plants operational in the EU territory. In 2007, the share of nuclear power in EU total domestic consumption was 13.4 percent and in total energy output was 27.8 percent.

According to the European Commission, some EU member states are now adhered to a phase-to-phase denial of nuclear power use while others prefer using nuclear power plants.

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