This situation was compounded by the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1989, which threw the nuclear sectors in the former Soviet Union into economic, technical and regulatory disarray. Prospects for international co-operation on improving nuclear safety in the region began to brighten in 1991 following the request by the Bulgarian authorities for emergency assistance at its nuclear plant in Kozloduy. Nuclear safety experts from the G7 countries considered it likely that many of the shortcomings at Kozloduy NPP would be common to other similar Soviet-designed reactors. The G7 strategy was adopted in the context of the immense costs involved in upgrading or decommissioning a particular reactor. For example, where this is feasible, it costs approximately e 150-200 million to upgrade an operating reactor of Soviet design.
Decommissioning costs are even greater.
According to reliable estimates, it would cost approximately e 200 million to decommission a single Soviet-designed reactor to a safe enclosure status. For the candidate countries of central Europe alone, the Commission has indicated in Agenda 2000 that approximately e 4 to 5 billion would be necessary over ten years in the nuclear safety field. Moreover, a large number of reactors is involved. Thirteen of these reactors are considered to be fully upgradable to internationally acceptable safety levels. There is also one Western-design reactor in Romania and one in Slovenia.