Four more Soviet-designed reactors were being built there, but No. 5 failed during its break-in period in early 1989 and never went into full service.

From the company's perspective, the profitability will come from replicating the work on other Soviet-designed reactors.

This is the first phase of an effort to improve safety at 55 Soviet-designed reactors in Russia and Ukraine.

However, your discussion overlooks Western investments in unsafe Soviet-designed reactors, which may in fact divert investment capital from industrial modernization and environmental cleanup.

Under pressure from Bonn, which considers the East German plants to be unsafe, one of five Soviet-designed reactors has already shut down.

All told, about 60 Soviet-designed reactors are operating in former Soviet republics and Eastern Europe.

Western experts have long worried about the lack of safety of the oldest type of Soviet-designed nuclear reactor.

This is the first time that Western technology has been integrated with Soviet-designed reactors.

We know the Soviet-designed reactors in Central and Eastern Europe cannot be upgraded safely at reasonable cost.

Czechoslovakia and Hungary have also recently asked the agency to carry out similar inspections on Soviet-designed reactors they are operating.