Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia are to get an extra €500 million in total to decommission their old Soviet-style nuclear reactors.
The European Commission offered, on 24 November, to provide further EU aid of €500 million to support the decommissioning of nuclear power plants Kozloduy (Bulgaria, €185 million until 2010), Ignalina (Lithuania, €210 million until 2017) and Bohunice (Czech Republic, €105 million until 2017), as requested by EU nuclear safety bodies. The financial assistance will help all three member states decommission the plants on time and remove major risks of radioactive poisoning of the local population. EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said that in order to qualify for the aid, the three countries had to fully implement EU nuclear safety and safe disposal of radioactive waste rules, setting up a legal framework to ensure they had the budget required to complete the decommissioning when the Commission's money runs out, and must submit detailed new decommissioning plans to the Commission, which will be used to decide upon payment of the EU aid.
Among their conditions for the accession to the EU, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia had to commit themselves to close and subsequently decommission their nuclear reactors - respectively, Kozloduy units 1 to 4, Ignalina units 1 and 2, and Bohunice V1 units 1 and 2. The additional €500 million comes on top of what has already been committed by the EU - nearly €2.8478 billion (in current prices), €1.367 billion for Lithuania, €613 million for Slovakia and €867.8 million for Bulgaria). (EH/transl.fl)