Contract part of Sofia’s plans to diversify supply for Kozloduy nuclear station
US-based Westinghouse has signed a contract with the Kozloduy nuclear power station in Bulgaria to carry out a safety analysis for the licensing a new nuclear fuel assembly design for Kozloduy-6.
The agreement follows the first load of Westinghouse-supplied VVER-1000 fuel assemblies to Unit 5 at the station in May.
Bulgarian energy minister Vladimir Malinov said the signing of the contract with Westinghouse marks a new key step in Sofia’s efforts to diversify nuclear fuel supplies for Kozloduy.
There are two 1,000-MW Russia-designed VVER units in operation at Kozloduy.
Kozloduy is Bulgaria’s only commercial nuclear power station and provides about a third of the country’s electricity.
Kozloduy-5 began commercial operation in December 1988 and Kozloduy-6 in December 1993.
Two Westinghouse AP1000 units are also planned for the site and scheduled to begin operation in the latter half of the 2030s.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, operators of VVER plants in Europe have been looking to diversify nuclear fuel supplies away from Tvel, the fuel wing of Moscow’s state-owned nuclear corporation Rosatom.
Westinghouse already has VVER-1000 fuel supply deals with Finland, the Czech Republic and Ukraine, which was already using Westinghouse fuel for half of its reactors in a push which started in 2014.
After the Ukraine invasion, Bulgaria accelerated plans to lessen its dependence on Russia for energy. The country has a fuel delivery contract with Tvel since 2019 which is set to expire at the end of 2024 and will not be renewed in 2025.
