IEA urges patience in judging nuclear risks

OSLO (Reuters) - The International Energy Agency urged "patience" in judging the risks of nuclear power after Japan's reactor emergency and said it was impossible to cut carbon emissions without relying partly on atomic energy.

Japan faced a potential catastrophe on Tuesday after an earthquake-hit nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital.

"I recognize the increased public fear about nuclear power," IEA chief Nobuo Tanaka, who is Japanese, told a news conference in Oslo.

"While I understand the public's fear, I am concerned given the important role of nuclear power. I encourage patience until more information is gathered for a full review so we can learn the lessons," he added.

Tanaka said concerns about the safety of nuclear energy, if they derailed nuclear power projects, would also hurt efforts to limit carbon emissions and contain global warming.

"The cost of fighting against global warming will increase, that is sure," he told Reuters. "I think it is very difficult (to fight global warming), even impossible, without using nuclear power."

Nuclear power, which emits almost no greenhouse gases, accounted for about 13.5 percent of world electricity generation in 2008, according to the IEA. Many countries have been considering atomic power as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Tanaka also expected the expansion of nuclear power to be costlier and to experience more delays than previously thought as a result of the situation in Japan.

"But nuclear power will definitely come back because it is a necessary technology to achieve sustainability for the future."

Asked whether demand for renewable energy would increase following the disaster, Tanaka said: "That we can say, because of the impact of the nuclear (situation) ... Also the demand for gas (is rising as an alternative to nuclear power)."

ADEQUATE OIL SUPPLIES

Tanaka said Japan appeared adequately supplied with oil following the earthquake and tsunami, but that if called upon, the IEA was ready to release strategic stockpiles.

"We don't have much worry about Japan's oil supplies," Tanaka said after a meeting with Norway's foreign minister.

"If necessary, we stand ready to use our strategic stockpiles but they have a very high -- 170 days -- stock so we are not very much worried," Tanaka added.

He did not envisage problems with global oil supplies due to the Libyan conflict and unrest in other Arab states, which have sent crude prices to two-year highs near $120 per barrel. On Tuesday, Brent traded around $110 per barrel.

"If it continues to be $100 through the year, it will certainly be detrimental for the economic recovery all over the world," Tanaka said. "If prices move higher, it will certainly create more problems."

He said the Libyan unrest has come at a time of maintenance by European refineries and that no European states have asked for a release of strategic stockpiles.

(Additional reporting by Wojciech Moskwa and Henrik Stoelen, editing by Anthony Barker)