Bulgaria
Bulgarian regulators have received additional documents to the application for the use of Westinghouse fuel on the Kozloduy-5
Belene - another termination
The Bulgarian government has once again announced the termination of the Belene NPP construction project.
On Wednesday, October 11, 2023, the government decided that the unfinished Belene NPP was losing its status as a national facility.
In addition, the government instructed the Ministry of Energy to take steps to cancel the procedure for selecting a strategic investor for the Belene NPP, announced by the National Electric Company (NEC) of Bulgaria.
The NEC should send a notice of cancellation of the procedure to companies previously selected as preferred candidates for the role of strategic investors. These are the Chinese corporation CNNC, a subsidiary of Rosatom...
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Yanko Yanev: the 0-0 game
Unfortunately, we live in this age of narrow political thinking. Each of our politicians think how to survive, whether he will be the next convocation of the parliament or the government or not.
So he finds support from a particular lobby. If he would contact the anti-nuclear lobby, he will cry how bad is the Belene project. If he is supported by the nuclear lobby, he would insist on the resumption of construction of Belene nuclear power plant.
This situation is not conducive to normal development. We must move away from lobbying approach. Instead, we have perform an objective evaluation of the energy system in Bulgaria.
We have now 35% of electricity generation produced by nuclear power plants. It was 50%, but when four VVER-440 units have been closed the nuclear fraction of power balance was downed to 35%. If we build a pair of reactors-thousanders, we will again meet 50% mark.
Despite such a large share of nuclear generation, we still do not have a clear understanding of how nuclear power will be developed in Bulgaria.
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In the future, European companies could receive orders from Russia for billions of euros for the construction of next generation nuclear power plants in different parts of the world.
The Rosatom State Corporation currently have contracts for the construction of 29 nuclear power units till 2030, while 10 of them are located in the Russian Federation and 19 - abroad. Two Bulgarian units at Belene NPP are included.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear power is very promising technology. Since about 70% of human beings live at conditions of energy deficit, the IAEA predicts the imminent construction of 350 nuclear units in the next 20 years at various locations around the world.
The Rosatom pretends to construct some 30% of it. This means that the value of orders to subcontractors would be over 300 billion euros till 2030.
To cope with this, Russia needs to invest and to expand its own production base but it could be not enough. Many large foreign customers including the Chinese government demand the maximum localization, or involvement of local sub-contractors.
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Bulgarians do not agree with Westinghouse
Westinghouse is trying to penetrate the market of nuclear fuel in Bulgaria.
Dimitar Angelov confrims, referring to the experience of the Czech Republic at the NPP Temelin. The CEZ group tried to use U.S. fuel instead of Russian one. This caused many problems, and ultimately CEZ was forced prematurely terminate the contract signed with the Americans.
During his last trip to Bulgaria, the Americans claimed that they were able to improve the production of fuel for VVER-1000 at Swedish plants. But the skepticism of Bulgarians is not overcome. We have shown only an analysis and evaluation of results without experimental evidence, says Angelov.
Director of the Kozloduy NPP believes that at this stage there is no need to restrain the Russian fuel rods. The plant runs the Russian fuel is a new project, but already there are suggestions for further improvement.
At the same time, Bulgarians do not reject outright from contact with the Americans. According to Angelov, it can be considered as a back-up fuel supply.
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A concrete plant started production at Belene NPP site
On February 16th, 2009 the first module of the concrete plant which started to produce concrete for Belene NPP construction in Bulgaria was put into operation.
The concrete production plant is located on Belene NPP construction Site and consists of two modules of capacity of 100 cubic meters of concrete per hour. Commissioning of the second module is scheduled for late February 2009.
Construction of the concrete plant and provision of Belene NPP Site with the ready-mix concrete for the period of the whole construction is in the scope of responsibility of Atomstroyexport JSC subcontractor - SD Mistral-TSS-Stoyanova, Stoyanov Bulgarian company, with which the relevant contract has been concluded.
Commissioning of the concrete plant is carried out as per the schedule in order to ensure active continuation of civil works at the Site.
Signing of Addenda 6 and 7 to the Agreement of November 29th, 2006 that are under consideration in the Ministry of Economy and Energy of Bulgaria at present is expected till the time of first concreting.
The two lives of the second nuke
The second Bulgarian nuclear power plant will have two lives. The first one was a socialist one, and the second - capitalistic. Initially, it was erected to the glory of the everlasting friendship among peoples from the Eastern bloc, and now it is going to be completed for the sake of global energy safety. The first life was cut short with the start of political changes. Could it resurrect at the second attempt?
The first life of the Belene NPP (The Second Nuke) began in 1984. The USSR and Bulgaria signed an agreement on constructing a nuclear power plant on the bank of the Danube River. In case it was done, the energy system of the Balkan republic could have another 2,000 megawatts for starters.
The site was located right across the biggest Danubian island, Belene and just 7.5 km away from the border with Romania. Though the reactors, offered to the Bulgarians, were designed in the USSR, it was the Czechs, and to be more precise, Skodaexport, who contracted the production and assembly of the major equipment. Soviet experts handed all the technological documents and know-how over to the Czechs.
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