`It is much more prudent and efficient to modernize and relicense existing nuclear facilities than close them down before their technological time has expired and then build brand new ones,` Genadii Shasharin said at the 20th session of the international workgroup on nuclear power units modernization. The three-day event, hosted by the Kozloduy NPP, is held under the aegis of Interatomenergo. The Kozloduy NPP is ready to decommission the first and second units at the end of 2002 under the agreement with the EC. Postponing the decommissioning with four months or so will not be fatal, specialists commented. The units are designed to function by the end of 2005 and it is wiser to decommission them gradually. The third and fourth units are designed to function by the end of 2011. Reports on managing the exploitation period were presented by scientists from France, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria. 50 researchers discussed the opportunities for boosting the security and lengthening the exploitation period of VVER nuclear energy units.

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