Units 3 and 4 of Bulgaria's nuclear power plant in the town of Kozloduy are safe, Antonio Madonna, head of the special European Union (EU) mission to Bulgaria that is carrying out a check on the reactors, has said Tuesday.

The peer review started Monday, when, according to Madonna's words, experts have already done a lot of work. So far the check is successful, the mission's chief disclosed.

On Monday, however, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Solomon Passy warned against too great expectations from the outcome of the peer review. The Bulgarian government agreed to close the two 440-megawatt units by 2006 under pressure from the EU. Bulgaria insists that there are serious reasons to demand extension of this deadline. Experts claim that decommissioning the reactors would result into a financial collapse at Bulgaria's energy sector.

The closure of the two oldest units at the end of last year came after many years of concern over their safety, strong pressure from the European Union, protests from the nuclear lobby and opposition parties that the reactors are economically necessary.

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