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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AFP) - Slovenia was caught in a nuclear controversy Thursday after admitting that it wrongly told other countries that a water leak that forced it to shut down a nuclear reactor was only an exercise. The shutdown on Wednesday led to the EU raising a Europe-wide radiation alert for the first time since the system was put in place in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster 22 years ago.

On Wednesday officials in Slovenia shocked the European Union with what seemed to be a rather serious accident in the country's only nuclear power plant, but a day later officials were backtracking. The European Commission on Wednesday evening through a special emergency alarm system, the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange, issued an EU-wide warning to all 27 member states, after cooling water had leaked from a power plant in Krsko, Slovenia.

A leak of coolant prompted Slovenia to completely shut down the reactor at its only nuclear power plant. The European Commission said parts were still cooling after the shutdown, but the situation was under control.

Five Member States Submit Candidates to Agency´s Board The IAEA´s 146 Member States were advised this week that five candidates have been nominated for Director General of the Agency. In a letter dated 28 April 2008, IAEA Board Chair Taous Feroukhi said she had received official nominations from the governments of Belgium, Japan, Slovenia, South Africa and Spain. The five nominated candidates are: Mr. Yukiya Amano of Japan; Mr. Luis Echávarri of Spain; Mr. Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa; Mr. Ernest Petrič of Slovenia; and Mr. Jean-Pol Poncelet of Belgium.

BRUSSELS, June 5 (UPI) -- Two incidents at nuclear power stations in Slovenia and the Czech Republic were quickly handled but left nerves jangled, the European Union said. The EU said there was no environmental impact in either case but the scares had done little to help Brussels' campaign to restore public confidence in nuclear plant activity.

LUXEMBOURG: Slovenia on Thursday blamed a faulty valve for a water leak at a nuclear plant, seeking to play down the incident as European Union ministers from Austria and other nations questioned the safety of nuclear reactors. The Slovenian authorities shut down the plant in Krsko, near the Slovene-Croatian border, after the leak Wednesday evening. The leak was confined to the plant building and caused no damage, the plant authorities said.

ZAGREB, CROATIA - Zagreb media have slammed the Croatian government because Croatia was the last to learn about what was going on at the Krsko nuclear power plant which is located in Slovenia, as well as what kind of malfunction it was. Despite the fact that a quarter of Croatian citizens live in and around Zagreb, the Croatian Electrical Company (HEP) held back information that there had been a malfunction at the plant for more than three hours, The Earth Times reported.

Austria lodged complaints with Slovakia and the European Commission to protest Slovakia's plans for restarting a reactor at the Bohunice nuclear power plant, Austrian Environment Minister Nikolaus Berlakovich said Monday. Austria would also stress its position in a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels on Monday that Slovakia's actions are "unacceptable," Berlakovich said, according to Austrian news agency APA. The reactor had been closed on December 31 in line with the agreement that allowed Slovakia to join the European Union. Prompted by the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute that has left Slovakia with dwindling energy reserves, the government in Bratislava decided Saturday to restart the mothballed reactor.

The parliamentary Public Finance Oversight Commission decided on Friday to call on the Court of Audit to review operations of the fund established to finance radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in the last five years.

The parliamentary Public Finance Oversight Commission decided on Friday to call on the Court of Audit to review operations of the fund established to finance radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning of the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in the last five years.