HEP HITS BACK AT CUTTING SHORT OF KRSKO BOARD MEETING

( Editorial: --> 6961 ) ZAGREB/KRSKO, July 10 (Hina) - A meeting of the provisional operational board of the Krsko nuclear power plant, jointly owned by Croatia and Slovenia, was abruptly brought to a halt on Friday. Sources from the Croatian Electric Utility Co. (HEP) said the meeting was called off by board chairman Ivo Banic. Croatian members of the board demanded that plant management within the next 10 days prepare a project for exchanging the steam generators, which the board would consider and decide upon. In the meantime Banic, according to the HEP, demanded that the board accept everything done by the plant management regarding discussions over buying steam generators, regardless of comments by Croatian board members. Croatian board members believe such a stance is unacceptable and against agreements on the plant and agreements by the economy ministers of Croatia and Slovenia, the HEP said. Slovenian media reported that the Croatian board member Roman Nota accused Banic of arbitrarily leading the meeting. But Banic told Slovenian radio that the Croatian side had up to now only verbally, and not in real-terms, expressed a positive view to the planned modernisation of the plant, which the Slovenians have calculated as about 130 million German marks. Slovenia has demanded that Croatia as soon as possible give bank guarantees for this and repay the debts owed by HEP. If this does not happen, Banic said the Slovenian government would independently go ahead with the modernisation of the plant, which was a message that the Croatian ownership share in Krsko would be reduced. The Krsko nuclear power plant, located in Slovenia, has been constantly mentioned recently in Slovenian-Croatian economic relations. Slovenian creditors have mentioned figures of Croatian debt from 20 to even 225 million DM, which the Croatian side rejects, holding that the numbers are absolutely incorrect and is without foundation. The Croatian Economy Ministry says that by the end of June more than 32 million DM had been paid to Krsko, and the debt stood at about six to seven million DM. The provisional operations board had been working without Croatian representatives who, the Economy Ministry and HEP said, had been forced to leave meetings because the Croatian side was treated as a buyer of electricity. "We do not buy electricity from the Krsko nuclear power plant because it is also a matter of our electricity, and our expenses, but not if do not have an influence and if funds are spent without anyone asking us," said Roman Nota, Assistant Croatian Economy Minister for Energy and Mining. (Hina) mbr jn /ha 101959 MET jul 98