Fears were raised yesterday over a decision to restart a potentially dangerous decommissioned nuclear power plant in the centre of Europe because of a shortage of gas caused by Russia’s dispute with Ukraine.

Slovakia, defying undertakings given when it joined the European Union, said that it would reactivate a Soviet-style nuclear generator that has a record of safety problems because it had received no Russian gas since last Thursday.

Russia again found a reason to delay turning the taps back on yesterday, despite an agreement brokered by Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister, on behalf of the EU, which was signed by Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the weekend.

President Medvedev said last night that the agreement allowing EU monitors to check on the flow of gas was no longer valid because Ukraine had attached a hand-written document contradicting the deal.

Twelve countries continued to receive no Russian gas as a result of Moscow’s claims that Ukraine was stealing supplies being piped across its land to other parts of Europe. Russia stopped deliveries of gas to Ukraine on New Year’s Day after a row over unpaid bills and new payment rates, and turned off all supplies through Ukraine last Wednesday.

Slovakia’s decision to reactivate the Jaslovske Bohunice plant prompted ferocious criticism from its nonnuclear neighbour Austria, which insisted on the generator’s shutdown as a condition of allowing the country into the EU in 2004. However, Robert Fico, the Slovak Prime Minister, defended the decision, saying that his country could not afford to have energy problems. He acknowledged that his Government was breaching the EU accession agreement, but said: “This is happening at a time of crisis. I would even compare the move we made today to the state of extreme emergency.”

The nuclear power station was switched off on December 31 and will take a week to reactivate. A spokeswoman in Brussels said that the accession agreement included a provision to restart the plant in case of national emergency, and Slovakia would formally request this at a crisis meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels today.

Michael Spindelegger, Austria’s Foreign Minister, said that the danger of the Soviet-era reactors “must not be underestimated” and called for an investigation to determine whether Slovakia was really in a state of emergency.

The head of the Austrian Green Party, Eva Glawischnig, said: “The reactor is considered one of the three most dangerous nuclear facilities in Europe. To reactivate it means to put people in danger, and not only in neighbouring Austria.”

Bulgaria has also signalled that it is considering reactivating mothballed Soviet-era reactors because the gas crisis has left them without sufficient energy.

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