Nuclear Power in Bulgaria

(updated 24 February 2010)

• Bulgaria has two nuclear reactors generating about 35% of its electricity.
• There are proposals to restart two others, shut down under duress as a condition of EU entry.
• Its first commercial nuclear power reactor began operating in 1974.
• Government commitment to the future of nuclear energy is strong and a new nuclear plant is firmly planned to come on line in 2013.

Electricity consumption in Bulgaria has been growing only slowly since 1980 but it has been a significant exporter of power. In 2006 Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEK) produced 46 billion kilowatt hours gross and exported 7.8 of these (net) to Greece, Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia. Bulgaria was vital in supplying power for the Athens Olympic games. However, with the closure of two older nuclear units at the end of 2006, no significant surplus is likely to remain. Over 90% of the country's gas supply comes from Russia.

In 2006 gross production was 19.5 TWh from nuclear, 19.1 TWh from coal, 4.6 TWh from hydro and a little from gas.

Nuclear industry development

Since 1956 the Bulgarian government has favoured the use of nuclear power for electricity. Initially a research reactor, the IRT-2000, was constructed and then in 1966 an agreement was signed with the Soviet Union for commercial units and providing the basis of the country's power program. In the absence of Bulgarian safety and regulatory bodies at that stage, these functions defaulted to Soviet standards.

The first pair of reactors were VVER-440/230 models, built and commissioned in under 5 years. The second VVER-440 pair incorporated many of the much-improved safety features of the 213 model. The third pair were the larger VVER-1000 units, 320 model. All these were part of the Kozloduy plant, close to the Danube River border with Romania.

A second site was chosen near Belene, also near the Danube border with Romania. This was with a view to building four or six large units. Site works started in 1980 and construction of the first VVER-1000/320 unit started in 1987. This was partly built (40%, with 80% delivery of equipment) but was aborted in 1991 due to lack of funds.

Operating and Laid-Up

Reactors	Model	Type	Net MWe	First power	Commercial operation	close, or licenced to
Kozloduy 3	Enhanced V-230	PWR	405	1980	12/80	12/06
Kozloduy 4	Enhanced V-230	PWR	405	1982	5/82	12/06
Kozloduy 5	V-320	PWR	953	1987	9/88	11/17
Kozloduy 6	V-320	PWR	953	1991	12/93	10/19
Total operating(2)			1906 MWe

Kozloduy

Over 1991-97 a lot of work was undertaken on Kozloduy units 1-4 in close consultation with the IAEA, WANO and the EU to improve safety and bring them closer to international norms, especially for units 3 & 4 which are in any case closer to the later V-213 design than any others of their class. This short-term program cost some EUR 129 million.

Over 1998-2002 a more thorough modernisation was undertaken in line with IAEA safety criteria to bring the units into conformity with current world standards. This was approved by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency in 1998, and revised in 2000, but only fully implemented on units 3 & 4. Control systems were replaced. Further safety-related work on units 3 & 4 was undertaken over 2003-05. Other operational safety improvements extended to units 5 & 6, and more than EUR 120 million per year has been spent.

The promise of EU accession accompanied by the offer of EUR 200 million from the EC led to Kozloduy 1 & 2 being closed on 31 December 2002. Shutdown dates for units 3 & 4, were agreed as 2006 and the total compensation raised to EUR 550 million.

However it was argued that Units 3 and 4 achieved levels of safety comparable with reactors of similar age in Western Europe. In 2002 the Bulgarian parliament decided almost unanimously that these units would not be closed down until after Bulgaria had gained EU membership, despite the EU's insistence that they close in 2006, prior to the country's admission. An IAEA mission reported very favourably in July 2002.

Then in 2003, after a 2-week scrutiny by 18 international inspectors, the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) reported that units 3 & 4 met all necessary international standards for safe operation. This confirmed the earlier IAEA report. WANO said that after more than a decade of safety upgrades on units 3 & 4 in line with IAEA recommendations: "operational, seismic and design safety at Kozloduy now corresponds to the level of improvements seen at plants of similar vintage elsewhere. Many of the safety measures adopted for these plants in the design, operation and seismic areas exceeded those that were foreseen."

The Bulgarian government then hoped to renegotiate the agreed 2006 shutdown and gain a reprieve until the licences expire (2011 & 2013), giving a 30-year operating life. The report of a late 2003 EU peer review supported the political initiative.

However, despite a 2005 opinion poll showing 75% support for keeping the two reactors running, the government finally ordered them to be shut down at the end of December 2006. Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007.

In January 2007 WANO declared that "no technical reasons exist for the early closure of units 3 & 4." Electricity shortages in the Balkan area have become acute since early in 2007. Apparently the two reactors could be brought back into operation in six months. Bulgaria's EU accession agreement says that in a national crisis the country has the right to resume power generation at Kozloduy 3 and 4.

In May 2008 the independent consultancy Energy Institute of Bulgaria said that the total losses from early closure of all four Kozloduy units amounted to EUR 12.3 billion, while EU compensation amounted to only EUR 580 million, with a further 500 million possible. The total includes EUR 3.9 billion in direct costs to the state budget and state-owned companies, EUR 6.8 billion in indirect costs for environmental damage from fossil plants and emissions trading, and EUR 1.4 billion for construction of new generating capacity to replace the four VVER-440s. In October 2009 the European Commission granted Bulgaria an extra EUR 300 million compensation.

In upgrade and modernisation program for V-320 units 5 & 6 extended to 2006, but there is no great concern about the safety of these units, which conform well to international standards. Their licences were renewed in October 2009.

New nuclear capacity - Belene

Positive IAEA reviews of the Belene project were undertaken in 1990, before construction was halted.

Planned Bulgarian Power Reactors

Reactor	model	type	net MWe	construction start	commercial operation
Belene 1	AES-92	PWR	1060	2010	2014
Belene 2	AES-92	PWR	1060	2011	2015
total			2120 MWe

In 2003 five reactor vendors expressed interest to the Energy Ministry in completing Belene or building new units there.

Early in 2005 the government approved the construction of Belene as a 2000 MWe plant. Parsons E&C Europe (now WorleyParsons) was appointed architect-engineer for the project to oversee redesigning it. Two consortia submitted bids to build the plant. Both had two variants: using the old VVER-1000/V-320 equipment already on site, and building afresh two AES-92 units.

In October 2006 NEK chose Atomstroyexport (ASE) over a Skoda-led consortium to build the plant comprising two 1060-MWe AES-92 VVER units with third-generation reactors. Russia's ASE leads a consortium including Areva NP and Bulgarian enterprises in the project. The contract was signed in January 2008, for EUR 4 billion excluding first cores. ASE signed up with a Siemens-Areva consortium for the instrumentation and control systems in November 2008, though it was later reported that contract signing was expected in March 2009 and that RWE would be involved. Construction of the first unit was due to start in March 2009, for completion in December 2013, and the second in March 2010 for completion June 2014. In December 2008 it appeared that the schedule had slipped about a year, and the first unit was now expected to start up in 2014.

The new units will be similar to those being built by ASE in China and India. Projected power cost is EUR 3.7 c/kWh. Skoda Alliance proposed an upgraded V-320 model reactor based on the Temelin units in the Czech Republic, for EUR 5 billion. One such unit was already partly built at the site when work stopped due to lack of funds in 1991, and the ASE bid involves buying back the equipment supplied then, for use in Russia.

NEK said that the AES-92 with a third-generation reactor satisfied stringent western European safety standards and so would be more acceptable in the EU, which Bulgaria joined in January 2007. NEK would retain 51% interest in the project and in 2007 sought equity or strategic (customer) partners. Applications were received from ten companies, six were shortlisted in September and five subsequently bid in October 2007: Suez's Electrabel of Belgium, Enel of Italy, German companies RWE and EOn, and CEZ of the Czech Republic (EdF dropped out at the last).

In March 2008 NEK announced that RWE Power and Suez/ Electrabel were favoured, but binding offers for 49% equity were initially too low. However, in October 2008 NEK announced that RWE Power was to be the strategic investor, but intended to share the role. GdF Suez was initially interested, but declined in order to concentrate on projects in France, UK, and elsewhere. RWE was required to invest EUR 1.275 billion as equity in the project, and provide a EUR 300 million corporate loan in advance. Total cost of the new plant inflated to September 2009 then came to some EUR 6 billion. Including owner's costs, infrastructure, grid uprating, site works, project management and finance it is likely to be about EUR 10 billion.

In December 2008 the Belene Power Company (BPC) was set up as a joint venture between NEK (51%) and RWE Power (49%) to manage the work. Much of 2009 was to be taken up with BPC finalising project specifications to RWE's satisfaction. This would have been the first substantial western investment in Russian nuclear technology since Finland's in the early 1970s.

Meanwhile in December 2008 ASE signed an EUR 82 million contract with Russia's OMZ Izhorskiye Zavody to supply reactor pressure vessels and related equipment, total 1300 tonnes. The first pressure vessel is to be shipped in December 2011 and the second in September 2012. In June 2009 a RUR 2.8 billion (EUR 65 million) contract was signed for the steam generator shells to be finished by ZiO-Podolsk and shipped 2010-12. The EUR 82 million contract figure is probably net of the V-320 equipment returned to ASE for use by Atomenergoprom in Russia.

Through 2009, following a change in government, concern was expressed as to whether the project was affordable. In September the government said that it would not take the full 51% stake in the plant and 20% looked more practical, to be held by Bulgarian Energy Holdings (BEH). RWE was also expected to reduce its stake, but in October pulled out altogether. The Bulgarian government is seeking new investors for up to 80% of the project, and hopes to arrange this by the end of 2010. Site works continue meanwhile, and WorleyParsons remains involved as architect-engineer. A project consultant is being sought in 2010 to develop the plant's economic model and proceed to the selection of investors.

Early in 2010 Russian and Bulgarian energy ministers agreed to make a decision on interim financing by the end of March. Russia is ready to invest EUR 1.9 billion to get the project moving, since manufacturing is well advanced by OMZ in Russia. When a strategic investor is found, the funds can be repaid, or some can remain invested on a permanent basis through a share in the Belene’s equity capital “that is as large as the Bulgarian government deems necessary.” Rosatom summarized: "We have discussed financial and legal instruments, which will help to implement all these arrangements and we have agreed to finish technicalities and approach the practicalities before the end of March.”

In February 2010 NEC approved the engineering design of the plant as developed by the architect general, Atomenergoproekt, jointly with OKB Gidropress, RRC Kurchatov Institute, and Power Machines. Construction is to be by ASE, with an Areva-Siemens consortium. A construction licence is expected from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency in mid 2010.

Fuel cycle

All fuel cycle services are provided by Russia's TVEL through Technabexport (Tenex).

Radioactive Waste Management

The State Enterprise Radioactive Wastes (SE-RAW) is responsible for much of the waste management.

Under a 2002 agreement, Bulgaria has been paying Russia US$ 620,000 per tonne of spent nuclear fuel repatriated for reprocessing in the Mayak plant at Ozersk, though some has also been sent to the Zheleznogorsk plant at Krasnoyarsk.

Used fuel is initially stored in pools at each reactor, but in 1990 a pool-type Spent Fuel Storage Facility (SFSF) was constructed at Kozloduy to take fuel from all the units. This was upgraded and a new licence issued by NRA in 2001.

A new EUR 49 million dry storage facility for 2800 VVER-440 spent fuel assemblies is being built near this at Kozloduy, with west European finance. Later expansion to accommodate 8000 VVER-440 and 2500 VVER-1000 assemblies is envisaged.

Also at Kozloduy is a low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste treatment and storage facility. In mid 2005 the Council of Ministers resolved that a 50,000 cubic metre national near-surface repository for disposal of radioactive wastes (NRD RAW) should be constructed by SE-RAW for operation in 2015. It will be paid for from the radioactive waste fund. Site selection is over four years.

The near-surface repository Novi Han is licensed for non-nuclear radioactive wastes.

The Kozloduy NPP pays 3% of the average market price of its power into a radioactive waste management fund managed by the Minister.

Decommissioning

Decommissioning of Kozloduy units 1 & 2 is being undertaken by BNFL in partnership with EdF. The European Commission pledged EUR 200 million to decommission all four of Kozloduy's VVER-440 reactors if closed by the end of 2006.

The plan is to defuel units 3 & 4 followed by dismantling the non-radioactive parts of the plant.

Regulation and safety

The Energy Ministry is responsible for the nuclear power industry. The two main entities are the Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) set up under the Safe Uses of Nuclear Energy Act 2002 and the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant plc. The NRA took over the functions of its predecessor, the Committee on the Safe Use of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes (CUAEPP), originally set up under a 1985 Act.

The NRA is responsible for both regulation of nuclear installations in relation to safety and radiation protection, and also the management of radioactive wastes. It also undertook all nuclear functions related to EU accession. The NRA has been a member of the Western European Nuclear Regulator's Association (WENRA) since 2003.

The Ministry of Health is also involved with radiation protection, and determines relevant standards. The Ministry of Environment and Waters monitors radiation levels throughout the country.

R&D

The IRT-2000 - a 2 MW pool-type research reactor - was shut down in 1999 after 38 years operation. It is being converted to use low-enriched fuel.

Non-proliferation

Bulgaria is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state. Its safeguards agreement under the NPT came into force in 1972. It is member of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group but not yet of Euratom. In 2000 it signed the Additional Protocol in relation to its safeguards agreements with the IAEA, and this is in force.

See also paper on: Early Soviet Reactors and EU Accession

Main Reference:
IAEA, Country Nuclear Power Profiles.

NRA web site

Kozloduy web site

參考來源:World Nuclear Association