Factbox - European states re-examine own nuclear safety

LONDON (Reuters) - European governments are stepping up efforts to assess nuclear safety in their own countries as Japan scrambles to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

Below is a summary of government responses to nuclear safety across Europe.

GERMANY

Germany announced on Tuesday the immediate closure at least until June of seven nuclear power reactors which started operating before 1980.

Chancellor Angela Merkel suspended on Monday her coalition government's unpopular decision to grant operational lifetime extensions to nuclear power plants.

Merkel said on Saturday Germany's nuclear plants were safe and the country did not face a threat from a serious earthquake or a violent tidal wave like the one in Japan.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland has suspended the approval process for three new nuclear power stations in order to revisit safety standards, Energy Minister Doris Leuthard said on Monday.

The Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) has also been asked to carry out safety checks at Switzerland's existing nuclear power plants, the ministry of the environment, transport, energy and communications (UVEK) added.

EUROPEAN UNION

Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger called on Tuesday for a stress test on Europe's nuclear power stations and raised the prospect of a nuclear-free future for the European Union after an emergency meeting of ministers and nuclear experts in Brussels.

BULGARIA

Bulgaria may freeze its Belene nuclear project and instead install a Russian reactor it has already ordered at its Kozloduy plant which is less exposed to seismic activity, Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said on Tuesday.

Traikov said on Monday that Bulgaria would verify the safety of the proposed Belene project.

LITHUANIA

Lithuania faces higher costs for a planned new nuclear power plant after additional safety measures are expected to push up the price tag, a senior advisor to President Dalia Grybauskaite said.

FRANCE

President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that lessons had to be learned from Japan's nuclear accident but he did not expect it to undermine the case for new nuclear projects.

He reportedly praised the safety of his country's nuclear reactors on Tuesday.

French green groups called on Saturday for France to end its dependence on nuclear power, saying Japan's radiation leak showed there were no safety guarantees in the industry.

BRITAIN

Britain's Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne said on Sunday he had commissioned the Chief Nuclear Inspector to compose a thorough report on the implications of the situation in Japan and the lessons to be learned.

The Health and Safety Executive said it was too early to say whether there would be any impact on the body's work to regulate Britain's nuclear new build programme.

In a parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday, Huhne said it was an "ongoing potential risk" that nuclear investors could be deterred from building new plants in Britain.

FINLAND

Finland will review the safety of its nuclear reactors, the Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen told Reuters on Monday.

ROMANIA

Romania said it was carrying out tests at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant to assess its safety, but the country maintained plans to build two more reactors on the site, an economy ministry adviser said on Wednesday.

HUNGARY

Hungary does not intend to revise extension plans for its Paks nuclear power plant and also does not see any reason to shut it down as it is deemed safe, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

ITALY

Italy, the only Group of Eight industrialised nation without nuclear power capacity, said it would stick to plans to build its first nuclear power reactors.

THE NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands will continue plans to build the country's second nuclear power plant, an economic ministry spokesman said on Monday.

He said it was too early to say whether developments in Japan would prolong the permitting process.

POLAND

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Sunday that Poland will stick to plans to build its first nuclear plant in 2020. [ID:nLDE72C05A] "Our plants will be built to provide maximum security, also in such scenarios, but let's be honest, Poland is not a seismically active country," Tusk said.

SWEDEN

Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said on Sunday a 2009 decision to allow existing nuclear reactors to be replaced at the end of their lifetime "still stands.

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic has no immediate plans to review its atomic expansion plans, the country's nuclear safety office chief said on Monday.

PLEASE SEE:

Reuters Insider TV: EU Energy Chief on Europe's Nuclear Future: link.reuters.com/bak58r

(Compiled by Karolin Schaps, editing by Anthony Barker)