Europe

Europe

EU offers extra fund to shut down Soviet-era nuclear plants

24 November 2011 17:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The European Commission offered on Thursday an extra 500 million euros (about 669 million U.S. dollars) for Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia to shut down their Soviet-era nuclear power plants, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"It is in our citizens’ interest that these reactors will be safely decommissioned and that they will never be restarted again," said EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger.

"This additional financial support will help the three member states to timely progress in defueling and decommissioning of these nuclear reactors," he said.

The additional funds will help the three countries to continue the safe decommissioning of three nuclear power plants of Kozloduy in Bulgaria, Ignalina in Lithuania and Bohunice in Slovakia, the commission said in a statement.

The bloc has committed 2.847 billion euros in financial assistance until the end of 2013 to the three countries. The additional 500 million euros will be provided from 2014.

Bulgaria will get 185 million euros until 2020, Lithuania will have 210 million euros until 2017 and Slovakia 105 million euros until 2017.