The nuclear safety chapter of the October 2006 European Commission monitoring report on Bulgaria's readiness to join the EU was unlikely to receive a red card, Economy and Energy Minister Roumen Ovcharov said.

The government would take some decisive measures and actions so that nuclear safety did not become an obstacle on the way to Bulgaria's EU accession, BGNES news agency said.

In the last EC report nuclear safety was given a yellow card. Ovcharov said that among all the chapters for which his ministry was responsible, this was the only problematic area to receive worse evaluation than last time.

The main cause of EC concern was the closure of the four small Kozlodui Nuclear Power Plant reactors. The Ministry has come up with a new strategy for short-term measures to convince the European institutions the government has no intentions to re-open the closed reactors.

The new strategy, which suggests speeding up the dismantling of the reactors, has yet to be approved by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. If the dismantling was delayed, there were other decisive actions that could be taken, Ovcharov said.