The story
In the early 1970s, Tito's government of Yugoslavia recognized the need for additional electrical production in the constituent republics of Croatia and Slovenia. With a domestic source of uranium available, proposals were obtained from Siemens (Germany) and Westinghouse (USA) for a single nuclear power station of a practical size. With the agreement of the U.S. government, Westinghouse won the competition to supply a plant based upon the Angra power plant being constructed in Brazil at that time. The Yugoslav management in 1975 consisted of personnel from both the Slovenian and Croatian power companies and a representative from the central government in Belgrade. As the design began, it was recognized that Westinghouse had a more modern design underway for the KORI-2 plant which is now the sister plant of Krško. Indeed, when the Krško Plant began producing power in 1981, it preceded both the Angra and Kori-2 plants.
The reason for the plant being co-owned by two countries was that these then-constituent republics of Yugoslavia planned to build two plants, one in each republic, according to the original 1970 agreement and its revised version from 1982. However, that plan was abandoned in 1987 due to disagreements over funding and electricity price. From that point on, there arose an issue with nuclear waste storage, because the only existing waste storage site was in Slovenia.
In 1997, ELES and NEK decided to increase the operational and decommissioning costs billed to both ELES and HEP, but the latter refused to pay. In 1998, the Government of Slovenia nationalized NEK, stopped supplying power from Krško to HEP, and sued HEP for the unpaid bills. In 1999, HEP counter-sued for damages because of lack of supply. In January 2001, the leaders of the two countries agreed on equal ownership of the Krško plant, joint responsibility for the nuclear waste, and the compensation of mutual claims. The joint management of the plant was to begin on January 1, 2002. The plant was expected to start supplying Croatia with electricity by July 1, 2002 at the latest, but the connection was only established in 2003 because of protests from the local population. Since then, HEP has additionally sued the Slovenian side for damages during the latest one-year period when Krško wasn't supplying power to it. In December 2015, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ruled in favor of HEP, awarding it more than €40 million in damages, interest and attorneys' fees.
In 2015, a 20-year life extension to the initial 40-year operational lifetime was agreed.
The plant is projected to withstand earthquakes up to the strength of the 1511 Idrija earthquake, the worst quake in Slovenia's history. It was seismically retrofitted after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. In 2020, the plant was inspected following the Zagreb earthquake, and pre-emptively shut down for several days after the stronger Petrinja earthquake. In neither case did the inspections find any damage.
In 2023, it was agreed to extend the operation of the nuclear plant until 2043.
From Wikipedia’s article on Krško Nuclear Power Plant, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4