TACIS and PHARE - a summary

The author group takes stock of the last seven years of the EU programs TA- CIS and PHARE. These programs represent a safety partnership between East a nd West intended to improve the standards of reactors of Soviet design. A w estern partner is assigned to each participating gene rating station in an East European country. Until the beginning of this year, the EU received te chnical advice from a commission of atomic power station operators from sev en EU countries; the contract was not renewed. However, the authors criticise not only the decision to dispense with techn ical support. The main point of criticism is the delay or bottlenecking of projects caused by complicated procedural rules. In some cases, processing times are so long that the project will not - as laid down in the TACHIS re gulations - be concluded within five years from the date of funding approva l. Result: currently, some 25 safety-related projects in Russia face cancel lation; the threatened loss runs into millions. Despite these bureaucratic obstacles, both eastern and western partners ple ad for a continuation of the programs.