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. Waste disposal and retirement plans High level nuclear waste is stored in the spent fuel pool, as is the usual practice for nuclear power stations. Onsite dry storage is planned to be built to take the plant to its revised end-of-life date of 2043. Low level waste is stored at the power station and secondary repositories. French company Framatome won a contract to upgrade the plant in 2021. June 2008 incident After a coolant leak on June 4, 2008, the European Commission set off an EU wide alarm through the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange (ECURIE). The power plant was safely shut down to the hot zero power mode after a small leak in the cooling circuit. The leak was immediately located and treated. According