The European Union has invested some 317 million Euros (275 million dollars) over nine years to ensure safety in Russia's nuclear plants, its representative in Russia Richard Wright said Thursday.
"About 16 percent of the EU's Tacis program total budget was granted to security projects at Russian nuclear plants," Wright told a press conference.
Tacis was created in 1991 after the break up of the Soviet Union to help Eastern European, Caucasus and central Asian nations strengthen democracy and develop market economies.
The EU has invested a total of two billion Euros (1.7 billion dollars) in 1,500 Russian development projects under the Tacis program.
Security at Russian nuclear plants is progressing because of the Tacis program, said Dmitri Guering, director in Russia for the Belgian company Tractebel which is helping to modernize the nuclear plant in Kalinin, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Moscow.
"Almost all Russian nuclear plants now work in partnership with French, German, British or Finnish companies," he added.
The world's worst civil nuclear accident occurred in 1986 at Chernobyl, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union – MOSCOW (AFP)
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