Kozloduy units 1 and 2 receive decommissioning licences

Tuesday, 2 December 2014

Bulgaria's nuclear regulatory agency (NRA) has issued licences for the decommissioning of units 1 and 2 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

Kostov presents the licences to Petrov (Image: SE RAW Kozloduy)

The term of the licences is ten years and decommissioning work is to be conducted by a special division of State Enterprise Radioactive Waste Kozloduy (SE RAW Kozloduy).

SE RAW Kozloduy said last week that NRA chairman Lachezar Kostov had officially presented the licences to its executive director, Dilyan Petrov.

The units are currently licensed for radioactive waste management and the new licences mean that SE RAW Kozloduy can start dismantling equipment as part of decommissioning work.

Kostov said in the SE RAW Kozloduy statement that there are certain safety requirements in the conduct of the overall process of decommissioning, governing components, systems, structures and facilities, as well as the site of the units.

Activities permitted by the licences are: decontamination, dismantling, management of materials and waste from decommissioning; management of the site of the nuclear facility and other activities that support implementation of the terms of the licenses.

"For better or worse, the process of decommissioning of nuclear facilities from service is happening for the first time in Bulgaria. I will not hide the fact that it was not easy to meet NRA's requirements for this activity," Petrov said.

Difficulties in preparing for the licences included structural changes at SE RAW Kozloduy in order to meet the requirements of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which finances the salaries of the Bulgarian company's employees, he added.

During European Union accession negotiations with the European Commission, Bulgaria committed to closing units 1 and 2 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant by the end of 2002 and units 3 and 4 by the end of 2006. All four units are V-230 model VVER-440 reactors, which the EC had earlier classified as non-upgradable. However, units 3 and 4 were of an improved design and closer to the later V-213 design than any others of their class.

In addition to the national decommissioning fund, in June 2001 the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund was established at the EBRD to finance decommissioning activities of Kozloduy 1-4 as well as to support energy projects in the country.

NRA transferred the licences for units 1 and 2 to in October 2010, in anticipation of decommissioning work.

Westinghouse said in August it plans to hold a competitive tender "within the next year" for construction of a seventh reactor at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. The AP1000 reactor is projected to be online by 2023. The site is already home to two operating Russian-designed VVER-1000 pressurised water reactors, Kozloduy 5 and 6, as well as the four shut-down VVER-440s.

Westinghouse, part of Japan's Toshiba group, announced the target date following its signing of a shareholder agreement for the Kozloduy nuclear power plant expansion project. A source close to the talks in Sofia told World Nuclear News the agreement decides the ownership of project company Kozloduy NPP - New Builds plc, of which Kozloduy NPP plc and Westinghouse will own, respectively, 70% and 30%.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News