23 Jun (NucNet): Bulgaria is planning to extend the lifetime of its Kozloduy-5 and -6 nuclear units by at least 30 years, Dimitar Angelov, chief executive of the Kozloduy power station, told a conference organised by the Bulgarian Atomic Forum.
Mr Angelov said all the documentation for the licence extension application for Unit 5 is being finalised and will be filed with Bulgaria’s nuclear regulator by the end of September.
The operating licence for Kozloduy-5 is expiring in November 2017, while the licence for Kozloduy-6 expires in August 2019.
Mr Angelov said a new type of fuel is soon scheduled to be loaded at Kozloduy-6, a 1,000 MW VVER V-320, which will increase its maximum output by roughly 100 MW.
Borislav Stanimirov, deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA), said Bulgarian legal regulations set a single operating licence term at a maximum 10 years, but do not limit the number of extensions.
He said if all necessary requirements are met, three license extensions will be needed for 30 more years of operation at the two Kozloduy units.
Mr Stanimirov said 55 of 77 measures required by stress tests carried out after the March 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident in Japan have been completed.He said the remaining measures will all be completed by the end of 2017.
Lachezar Kostov, the head of the NRA, said the main tasks for Bulgaria’s nuclear energy sector are lifetime extensions at Kozloduy-5 and -6, modernisation of the two units by increasing their capacity, construction of a new unit at Kozloduy, and development of a national repository for low- and medium-level radioactive waste.
