Facility ‘crucial’ for construction of new nuclear power plants
Bulgaria’s national repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste has been issued with a certificate confirming it is ready for commissioning, the State Enterprise for Radioactive Waste (SERAW) has said.
According to SERAW, which is responsible for the management of Bulgaria’s radioactive waste, a 23-member state acceptance commission concluded that the project, which was launched in 2005, complies with the construction permits and the requirements for construction.
SERAW executive director Dilyan Petrov said in a press release that the decision marks the completion of a long and challenging project. He said the availability of a repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste is crucial for the construction of new nuclear power plants in Bulgaria.
SERAW is now waiting to receive a permit to use the facility and a commissioning permit from the country’s nuclear regulator, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency.
The repository site is near the Kozloduy nuclear power station, about 180 km north of the capital Sofia near the border with Romania. It will be used to store waste from industry, medicine and households, waste generated from the decommissioning of Kozloduy units 1-4 and from the future operation of nuclear power plants.
The repository, which will not be used for storing high-level waste or used nuclear fuel, will have a capacity of 138,200 cubic metres of waste. It is expected to operate for about 60 years. It will then be closed and monitored for another 300 years.
Bulgaria is planning to build two new nuclear reactor units at Kozloduy.
US-based Westinghouse Electric was selected in 2023 to supply its AP1000 pressurised water reactor technology for the project.
In early 2024, Sofia chose South Korea’s Hyundai E&C for the construction, delivery and eventual commissioning of the two proposed units, to be known as Kozloduy-7 and -8.
Kozloduy is the country’s only commercial nuclear power station and provides about a third of its electricity.
There are two 1,000-MW Russia-designed VVER units in operation at the site and four older VVER-440 PWRs under decommissioning.
