Currently, around a third of the electricity in the EU country is generated by nuclear power and around half by coal. Now two new reactors are to be added.
In Bulgaria, the government has approved the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Kozloduy power plant on the Danube. The reactors are to be built as pressurized water reactors by the US company Westinghouse Electric Company, as the government in Sofia announced on Wednesday.
The state energy holding will increase the capital of the responsible Kozloduy joint-stock company by up to 500 million leva (a good 255 million euros).
The first new reactor in Kozloduy should be ready in 2033, the other up to three years later, explained Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov. There are currently two 1,000 megawatt units of Soviet design in operation at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Two smaller reactors were shut down immediately before Bulgaria’s accession to the EU in 2007 due to safety concerns from Brussels.
Currently, around a third of the electricity in the EU country is generated by nuclear power and around half by coal. In order to become independent of Russian nuclear fuel, Bulgaria has already signed corresponding contracts with Westinghouse Electric Sweden, a subsidiary of the US group, and with the French company Framatome.
The pro-Western government, which has been in office since the beginning of June, suspended a tender two weeks ago for a nuclear power project originally planned with Russia near Belene on the Danube. The German energy company RWE withdrew from the project in 2009 due to a lack of financing.
Source: Stern
