The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is to provide a 76 million ecu ($100 million) credit for safety improvements to nuclear power stations in St. Petersburg, on the Kola peninsula and at Novovoronezh, Interfax reported Wednesday.


Vladimir Poroikov, who heads the foreign relations department of Rosenergoatom, which operates Russian nuclear power stations, told the news agency that the credit arrangements had been signed by Nuclear Power Minister Viktor Mikhailov and by EBRD First Vice President Ron Freeman in London.


The full credit will be available from 1997.


Russia has announced that Western companies which take part in the work will be exempt from responsibility for any nuclear mishap.


The EBRD will make 45 million ecus available for improving the safety of VVER-440 reactors, built back in the 1970s, in the first and second power units of the Kola peninsula station and the third and fourth units of the Novovoronezh complex, and 30 million ecus for the modernization of the RBMK reactors in the first and second power units in the St. Petersburg station.


Russia has already signed an agreement with Canada for technical assistance with its nuclear power generation.


Canada is unique in the West in having developed water cooled "channel type" reactors which have many similarities in technology with Russia's problematic RBMK design.


Under the accord, signed last December, teams of Canadian specialists are being based in Moscow and St Petersburg, and assisting the Russians to develop design improvements and safety procedures.