18 Apr (NucNet): Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom says it intends to fulfill its obligations under a contract signed to supply two 1,000-MW VVER units at the Belene nuclear site in Bulgaria and talk of possible compensation for the abandoned project is premature.
Rosatom deputy director-general Kirill Komarov said the Bulgarian side had signed several contracts that Russia had “faithfully performed” and Russia is ready to complete the manufacture of all products ordered and is “waiting for payment”.
Mr Komarov said one of the contracts was for the production of almost all the basic equipment for both planned units at Belene.
He said talk about compensation for the failure of the project is premature and talks have begun to find a solution.
Bulgaria’s Cabinet decided in principle last week to construct a seventh nuclear reactor unit at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant on the Danube river.
The plans to build a seventh unit at the plant came after the Cabinet officially decided on 28 March 2012 to abandon the project for the two units at Belene, a new site, saying it would be more realistic to add a reactor at Kozloduy, where two VVER-1000s are operating and four VVER-440s are being decommissioned.
According to the Bulgarian Atomic Forum long-lead components have already been ordered and manufactured for the two Belene units.
Options now include selling them to another VVER-1000 customer, storing them pending licensing of a new Kozloduy unit, or selling them and opening a completely new tender for the Kozloduy unit, the forum said.
Mr Komarov said negotiations had begun towards the possible “resupply” of Kozloduy, but “talking about it is still too early”.
In 1999, the Bulgarian government closed down Kozloduy nuclear power plant’s four VVER 440-230 units as a condition of entry into the EU.
Units 1 and 2 were shut down in 2002 and units 3 and 4 in 2006. Kozloduy-5 and -6 are newer VVER-1000 units and provide just over one third of the country’s electrical power production.
