EU energy expert concerned about Japan

BRUSSELS, March 17 (UPI) -- The EU energy commissioner expressed concern about methods Japanese technicians are using to prevent further disaster at a crippled nuclear power plant.

Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said the Fukushima power plant, damaged by a 9-magnitude earthquake Friday, is "effectively out of control" and said he was surprised at the "incredible makeshift" methods used to prevent the disaster from growing, EUobserver.com reported Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Oettinger said his observations weren't based on new information.

The European Commission, based in Brussels, confirmed Wednesday it asked EU members to check radioactivity levels in food and feed imported from Japan. Maximum levels of radioactive contamination allowed in food imports into the European Union were set after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

EU member states and nuclear industry representatives also agreed to a round of stress tests at the bloc's 143 nuclear plants later this year.