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THE SITUATION IN BULGARIA

reactors
Kozloduy’s reactors 1-4
closure dates and proposals for lifetime extensions

Reactors

Bulgaria has one nuclear power plant (NPP) at Kozloduy, based on the Danube river, 42 km east of the town of Lom and 16 km west of Oriahovo.

At Kozloduy there are six Soviet designed VVER type reactors.  Units 1 to 4 are VVER-440/230.  Units 1 and 2 were connected to the electricity grid in 1974 and 1975, and units 3 and 4  - in 1980 and 1982.  The newest units 5 and 6 are VVER-1000/320 and started operation in 1987 and 1991.   The overall installed capacity of the plant is 3760 MW. In 1990 it has generated approximately 35 % and in 1997 –  approximately 42 % of the total electricity in the country.  Until May 2000 the owner-operator of the nuclear power plant was the state-owned monopoly National Electric Company (NEK).  At present the Kozloduy NPP is a state-owned limited company.
 

Another NPP of four VVER-1000/320 units was planned at Belene, but its construction was halted in 1991 because of the great opposition by the local citizens, the scientists of the Bulgarian Academy of Science and the environmental non-governmental organizations.  The plant is also situated on the Danube river, 3 km west of the town of Svishtov in a region with a very high seismic activity.
 

Kozloduy’s reactors 1 - 4

The old units 1-4 of Kozloduy were constructed to the designs and concepts worked out in the former Soviet Union during the 1960s. The comparison of the reactors’ design with the current safety standards reveals major safety deficiencies.  The safety problems at Kozloduy are well documented and recognized by many international institutions and experts.

The major safety deficiencies are:
 

• Lack of a secondary containment system – mandatory in the modern reactors as it acts as a barrier against radioactive releases directly into the environment in the event of a serious accident;
• Cooling systems are not appropriate.  There is not adequate protective containment;
• The seismic safety levels do not correspond to internationally accepted standards;
• No back up control rooms in blocks 1 and 2 - in case of a damage in the main control board or if evacuation of the operators is necessary, there is no place from which the reactors could be shut down.

No safety upgrades and modernization measures at these reactors are able to overcome such safety deficiencies.
 

Closure dates and proposals for lifetime extensions

On 16 June 1993, under the first Nuclear Safety Account (NSA) agreement, signed with the government, Bulgaria was granted 24 million ECU for short-term upgrades at units 1-4. The grant was conditional on the closure of units 1-2 by the spring of 1997 and closure of units 3-4 in 1998.

The NSA grant was approved regardless of the statement made by the Chairman of the Bulgarian National Energy Committee that Bulgaria would resist demands to close down units 1-4 in exchange for 24 million ECU NSA grant.  Within six months of signing the agreement it became clear that the Bulgarian authorities were not willing to abide the NSA obligations. 
 

On 10  December 1999 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the European Commissioner on Enlargement Gunter Ferheugen and the Bulgarian government.  Under this Memorandum Bulgaria agreed to close units 1 and 2 of Kozloduy NPP before 2003 and units 3 and 4 – before 2006.  The closure dates for the units 3 and 4 are still not fixed.
In return Bulgaria is provided a grant of 200 million EURO under the PHARE program. This money has to be spent on:

• construction of a radioactive waste storage facility;
• other nuclear safety projects (including decommissioning);
• overcoming of the social consequences of the reactors’ closure;
• energy efficiency measures;
• modernization of the electric subsections;
• environmental projects in the conventional energy sector.

However, the current management of the Kozloduy NPP is willing to extend the operation of units 3 and 4 until the end of their projected lifetime, which means until 2010 and 2012. It is expected that the International Atomic Energy Agency will conduct a safety mission in 2002, which will prove that the operation of units 3 and 4 can be extended.