Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power station has signed an agreement for the delivery of nuclear fuel for the second of its two commercial VVER-1000 reactor units with the Germany-based wing of France’s Framatome.

Kozloduy said in a statement that the agreement with Framatome is related to a contract to be signed for 12 fuel loads at the Kozloduy-6 pressurised water reactor (PWR) unit between 2025 and 2034.

Bulgaria has two Russia-designed VVER-1000 PWR units in commercial operation at Kozloduy on the Danube River in the north of the country. The two plants, inherited from the socialist era, provide about one third of the country’s electricity.Units 1 to 4 at the station are all in permanent shutdown.

The Framatome agreement comes following the signing on 22 December of a 10-year fuel supply deal between the Bulgarian plant and US-based Westinghouse for twin unit Kozloduy-5.