The European Commission proposed on Thursday to provide a further 185 million euro ($247.7 million) in assistance to Bulgaria until 2020 to support the decommissioning of nuclear power plant Kozloduy's old reactors.
In 2007 Bulgaria closed four of its six power units at Kozloduy nuclear power plant, which was one of the conditions for becoming a member of the European Union.
The Commission plans to allocate a total of 500 million euro in additional aid to Bulgaria, Lithuania and Slovakia for shutting down their old Soviet-era nuclear reactors, it said in a statement.
"This additional financial support will help the three Member States to timely progress in defueling and decommissioning of these nuclear reactors. This is a clear expression of solidarity of the EU, which has put nuclear safety as a priority," EU Commissioner for energy Guenther Oettinger said in the statement.
"The Union assistance for decommissioning of nuclear power plants aims at reaching an irreversible state in the decommissioning process and eliminating the major source of radiological hazard," the statement added.