documentaries. glad to have you on this edition of "newsline." it's 9:00 a.m. in tokyo. japan's prime minister naoto k k will pledge at the g-8 summit to make nuclear power safe as the fight to control the fukushima daiichi plant continues. a group of eight summit opens on thursday led by french president nicolas sarkozy. prime minister kan plans to express deep gratitude for support extended by many countries in the aftermath of

the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. kan will say he's determined to realize the highest possible safety for nuclear power joining hands with the international energy agency. he'll announce a -- from 9 to 20% by the next decade. the leaders of japan and france have agreed to hold foreign ministerial level talks on energy levels following the accident at the fukushima nuclear plant. japanese prime minister naoto kan in france to attend the group of eight summit met with french president nicolas sarkozy on wednesday. sarkozy expressed respect for how japanese people behaved in the wake of the march 11th earthquake and tsunami and said full french support would continue. the french president then proposed strategic dialogue to strengthen bilateral ties. the talks revealed a difference in views on energy policy.

kan says he wants to boost the ratio of solar power and other renewable energies while continuing to use nuclear power, though with stronger safety measures. sarkozy replied that it is not a question of choosing one out of two options. nuclear power or not nuclear power. but he agreed that heightening the safety of nuclear plants is important. in europe the position on nuclear energy is divided. while germany has taken steps away from nuclear power, france remains optimistic about the potential. [ speaking in a foreign language ] president nicolas sarkozy stressed that france will continue using nuclear power as the best choice even after the

incident at the fukushima plant. the plants generate 80% of the country's electricity. though the safety of nuclear power was called into question in hearings in march the french government is making it clear that it will continue using nuclear energy as its national policy. [ speaking in a foreign language ] . in fact, an accident similar to fukushima occurred in france in 1999. in december of that year, the

plant in france's cooling system was temporarily shut down after flood water from a river inundated the facility. the accident didn't lead to a major problem thanks to a back-up cooling system. but the government ordered the power company to beef up measures against disasters. the company built an eight and a half meter high wall that prevents storm waves from entering. the company also introduced a system which can convert hydrogen into steam, thereby avoiding a potential explosion in the reactor. at the g-8 summit france

wants to discuss introducing stronger safety measures for nuclear power. it hopes to continue the development and utilization of atomic energy. >> it doesn't want fukushima to lead to any closure of a nuclear plant in the world. we already said this won't change anything in the french nuclear policy. france will remain very much supportive of nuclear energy. >> meanwhile in germany, anti-nuclear campaigners are gaining momentum. here's more from devil. the german chancellor recently announced the major shift of nuclear power generation. [ speaking in a foreign language ] >> translator: japan's accident has proved that what had been deemed scientifically improbable

could occur. >> reporter: the seven aging nuclear reactors should be closed down. she is expected to announce next month whether they will completely terminate nuclear power within ten years or so in germany. the government is now in a hurry to develop alternatives to nuclear sources of energy. wind and solar power generation. wind power generation is singled out as a power given the reliable winds available in northern germany. the objective is to raise the percentage of power generated using renewable sources of energy through 35% in a decade from 17% at present. but critics say the climate could affect the wind patterns,

leaving them unstable. they also say that the power grid expansion and oh aspects of infrastructure building would be costly, resulting in higher utility bills. the business community is also questioning the hasty departure from nuclear power generation. >> translator: if a power outage continued for four hours it would ruin the production apparatus. germany would lose its global competitive edge. >> reporter: public opinion in germany over nuclear power has been divided for a long time. nevertheless, they are taking a step toward the denuclearization though it not be easy. >> translator: at present, renewal energy sources can generate barely enough power to meet demands but the world is

heading toward a post nuclear power era. germany helps to build a model for the world. >> g-8 leaders will be talking about nuclear safety when they meet in frons on thursday. they are facing increasing pressure to create a new plan for the future of nuclear power generation. one of the key players will be the united states, home to the worl's largest number of nuclear reactors. hideshi hara spoke with an american expert. >> reporter: president obama's support for the nuclear renaissance has not changed despite public concern in the wake of the fukushima accident. joining us is of professor nathan holtman of the university of maryland. he's an energy policy expert at the brookings institute. thank you very much. >> happy to be here. >> germany is moving away from nuclear power whereas france, the host of the g-8 summit, is pro nuclear.

what can we expect from u.s. president barack obama? >> president obama said nuclear power will remain a pillar of our energy industry here in the united states. it's likely that in the next coming months and years we'll have a discussion about nuclear power here in the united states but the discussion will rotate primarily arne questions of regulation and questions and not the bigger questions of whether we have it or not. >> what lessons have u.s. regulators learned from japan's accident? >> it's clear from the japanese situation to the regular dptorst there are several dimensions to review. we'll look at requirements our reactors have for backup power and one hopes increase them to increase the backup power supplies so the reactors can continue to run in the event of a blackout. there are other problems that happened at fukushima we need to deal with here as well. one is the spent fuel storage in

pools next to reactors. one thing the disaster has shown clearly is that many of our nuclear power plants do not have emergency preparedness plans that have been vetted by the regulators. there is a clear disconnect between the approval of the regulatory plan and the proposal of the regulatory plan by the actual operator that would probably need to be fixed as soon as possible to ensure our plants are running in a safe way. >> anti-nuclear momentum is growing and it's not just the general public. american businesses are also becoming more cautious about building new power plants. what kind of strategy does president obama need to take? >> before the earthquake, even at that time the so-called nuclearaissance was already essentially not happening here in the united states. the reason is that there is very abundant and inexpensive natural gas we have been getting from a resource called shale gas.

even before safety concerns reemerged after fukushima, we had this problem that the cost of nuclear power seemed too high to a lot of utilities here. that means that now the road is ever that much more difficult for anybody who wants to push nuclear power in this country. i suspect that after 5, 7 or 10 years perhaps the technology will have evolved at that point. perhaps public attitudes will be different. perhaps the need for a low carbon energy source may have been increased but for now i would say it's holding the line. >> nonetheless in other parts of the world is fukushima accident is now keeping china, vietnam and other emerging economies from moving ahead with their nuclear projects. how can developing countries manage the risks? >> well, that's a really interesting question.

it's a central one. as nuclear power grows the likely area of the biggest growth will be in the emerging economies. one of the ways we need to think about nuclear power is institutions in management. it's about regulation in the safety culture in each individual country. >> g-8 countries have more experience in dealing with nuclear energy. what can they do to guarantee safety in developing economies? >> we run into the problem that countries are their own organizations and they don't have to do anything that the international community wants. there have been proposals which i think should continue to be pursued about for example providing a national bank to reduce concerns about proliferations. that ran into a wall recently, but i think they remain an interesting option. >> how has the fukushima accident affected the nuclear

renaissance? >> even for countries that are ehly interested in nuclear power such as china is that it will require reflection. it will require discussion about the regulatory procedures and adequacy thereof. we'll see probably at least some kind of delay in the roll out of new reactors in the countries they are slated for. maybe a year or a couple of years. my hope is the regulatory procedures will be improved rather than having it be a delay for delay's sake. at said the long term impact will vary by country. it's likely in japan it will have a big impact. in germany it will have a big impact. but in other countries it's likely that people will review the regulatory policies, come to agreement about how to proceed and they will probably continue on a path like what they did before.

>> thank you very much for your views. >> tokyo electric power has revealed the march 11 quake probably damaged a critical piping system in reactor 3 of the fukushima nuclear plant. the utility said analysis of pressure and temperature data from after the quake shows that the third reactor lost its cooling system on march 13th. much of its nuclear fuel likely melted town and collected at the bottom of the pressure vessel over the next 24 hours. the announcement shows a crucial emergency system for injecting high pressure coolant may have been damaged by the quake. the system which is designed to maintain the water level inside the reactor vessel in an emergency is known to have automatically kicked in shortly after noon on march 12th. but pressure inside the reactor plunged over the following six hours. tepco says a drop in pressure is consistent with analysis that the piping system was damaged.

the system is one of the plant's most important safety features. it must be damage proof. tepco says that it is possible a gauge malfunction may be to blame for the data fluctuation. its engineers say more investigation is needed to examine if the massive earthquake damaged the cooling system. nitrogen injection to prevent a hydrogen explosion was temporarily suspended at the number one reactor on wednesday. the utility has been continuing the operation since early april. it's the second time that it has stopped. now the utility has not yet found the cause of the stoppage. tepco says the injection resumed after more than four hours. the operation was suspended also on saturday. the utility says the stoppage caused only a minor change in pressure inside the containment vessel and there is no risk of a new hydrogen blast. hydrogen is created when nuclear fuel reacts with water and

pressure builds up inside the containment vessel. tepco is trying to identify the cause of the problem. now from the business desk, ahead of the g-8 meeting prime minister naoto kan released the new energy policies for japan. >> that's right. good morning to you. as catherine said, naoto kan said on wednesday that japan aims to dramatically reduce its reluctance on fossil fuels and nuclear energy. he said they plan to have 20% of electricity come from renewable sources. kan spoke at the organization for economic forum in paris on wednesday ahead of the g-8 meeting. attendees included hillary clinton and jose baroso.

>> translator: it is the country's responsibility to analyze the accident and inform the global community and future generations about what we have learned. >> kan unveiled the country's new basic energy policy saying that renewables and energy conservation will become new pillars. he said the country aims to more than double the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources. kan said japan wants the amount to be a fifth of the total by early 2020s. japan aims to reduce the cost of generating solar power to a third of the current level by 2020 and to one-sixth a decade later. another plan is to install solar panels on ten million houses. the oecd forecasts that japan's economy will shrink almost 1% this year due to the devastating disaster in march. an oecd report released wednesday says japan's gross domestic product is likely to

shrink .9% in 2011 rather than grow as forecast in late april. the report cited a larger loss of output but expects the economy to grow 2.2% in 2012. it products money will be spent on rebuilding destroyed homes and factories but admits that are uncertainties including power supply shortages. the oecd says global economic recovery is on track though emerging nations are growing faster than industrialized ones. u.s. growth is forecast at 2.6% and euro zone at 2%. secretary general angel gurilla said the economy is unpredictable in light of the disaster in japan and financial difficulties of some countries. let's look at the markets. on wednesday the nikkei was lower but the dow finished in positive territory.

we cross over to our reporter at the stock exchange. how are things looking? >> the nikkei is flirting with the 9,500 mark. it failed to close above that yesterday. it finished at 9 vrks,422. let's look at where the index is. the nikkei posting pretty healthy gains and it's recovered to 9,500 mark. tokyo stocks could be getting support from wall street overnight. on wednesday the dow ended the three-day losing streak on the back of higher commodity prices and opened lower on weaker than expected april durable goods order data but reversed course as investors scooped up energy shares because they saw oil prices gain ground. dow finishing at 12,394 points, up 38 points or .3 of a%. the nasdaq finishing at 2,761,

up 15 points or about half of 1%. now tokyo stocks could be getting support from overnight gains on wall street as well as in europe. they are relatively stable yen but caution over the global economic outlook could cap the upside. today will be a big day on the earnings front as sony gives out the full year earnings numbers. they said on monday that it expects to stay in the red for a third straight year, partly due to the impact of the march 11 disaster. yesterday sony shares fell on news of further security breaes of its website. the dollar is around 82 yen. trading has been lack luster for dollar yen as there is no strong incentives to trade on.

we are seeing bigger moves in the euro due to the debt problems continuing to effect the single currency as the yen was bought in europe and the euro is quoted in the mid 150 yen range. that's all from here. >> thank you. now let's get a look at other market figures. that's all for business. back to catherine. >> thank you very much. north korean leader kim jong il

is believed to have met with the chinese president hu jintao in beijing. kim has been in china since friday. he arrived in beijing wednesday morning aboard his special train. kim is believed to have had lunch with members of the chinese leadership at the state guest house. he then apparently moved to the great hall of the people in the afternoon for a bilateral summit. kim and hu are believed to have exchanged views on e bilateral economic cooperation in border areas and on a resumption of six party tuks on north korea's development. china is proposing that invoice from north korea -- envoys hold a meeting before talks resume. south korea said the north should express intentions to abandon nuclear programs at the discussions. now a look at the latest in weather.

>> hello there. time for your weather update. we are keeping a close eye on a typhoon, a large and strong typhoon headed to the northern end of the philippines. you can see the out of bounds starting to impact much of the philippines. it's starting to veer to the north continuing to strengthen over warm waters. looks like it will reach a peek on saturday. already packing wind gusts up to 234. it's a powerful system indeed. we expect to find stormy weather conditions especially along the east coast of luzon here. watch for high waves and storm surges. it continues to move slowly so we'll see persistent heavy rain around luzon over the next few days. ed flooding and landslides will be a concern. also enhancing the monsoon as well. quite a large area impacted by

this storm system. looking at widespread rain across the philippines starting to bring heavy rain into the okinawa islands this weekend. high waves expected here. so looking stormy this weekend. the rain band to the north of it is going to be headed into japan. central and western portions of the country will experience showers this afternoon. also localized thunderstorms and heavy downpours possible. looking unsettled here. much of china does stay dry. central and southern portions seeing less rain than we'd like. northeastern corner with showers here. that will help cool things down in beijing today. 26 for the high. 22 in seoul. slightly cooler than yesterday. tokyo will be 22 degrees. now we head into north america. major story here will be the powerful low pressure system that continues to move slowly across the region. this is bringing very stormy

weather conditions in and around the central mississippi valley. tornadoes and large hail and also heavy showers. that is going to continue into the night here. the greatest threat in and around arkansas, illinois into kentucky here look at high risk of tornadoes as well as large hail and damaging winds. similar conditions into thursday as well as the storm system continues to move slowly to the east. over to the northwest, a new system coming in is going to be pulling cool air. looking quite unsettled here. could see late season snow as well, especially in and around washington today. 14 degrees in vancouver today. 14 in seattle. 17 in winnipeg. looking much cooler in chicago as well at 12. what a difference from yesterday. it stays warm to the south and the northeast. 27 degrees in new york city and

32 in washington, d.c. all right. i shall leave you with your city by city forecast. the lead story prime

minister naoto kan will pledge at the upcoming g-8 summit to make nuclear power safe. the group of eight summit opens in france on thursday. chaired by french president nicolas sarkozy. the safety of nuclear power will top the agenda. prime minister kan plans to express his deep gratitude for support extended by many countries in the after math of the march 11 earthquake and tsunami. kan will say he's determined to realize the highest possible levels of safety for nuclear power by sharing the lessons of fukushima and joining hands with the international atomic energy agency. the prime minister will announce a policy of raising the ratio of solar and oh renewable energies in japan from 9 to 20% by the next decade. and that's all for this edition of "newsline." thanks for joining us.

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