Decommissioning

Bulgaria Extends Nuvia Consortium Contract For Decommissioning And Radwaste Management At Kozloduy 1-4

By Kamen Kraev
20 March 2019

20 Mar (NucNet): Bulgaria’s state-owned company for handling radioactive waste, DPRAO, has awarded a new three-year contract to a consortium between Spain’s Empresarios Agrupados and UK-based Nuvia for managing the programme of decommissioning four shutdown reactor units at the Kozloduy nuclear plant and construction of a national radwaste depository at the site.

Nuvia said in a statement that the consortium has been managing since 2013 the decommissioning programme for Units 1-4 at Kozloduy and the construction of Bulgaria’s National Disposal Facility.

In 1999, Bulgaria decided to close down the Kozloduy nuclear power station’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.

In August 2017, DPRAO began the construction of a national repository for solid low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste near Kozloduy.

The decommissioning and repository projects are funded by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund (KIDSF), administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Nuvia said recent significant achievements for Kozloduy’s decommissioning programme have included the commissioning of a plasma melting facility, and a size reduction and decontamination facility.

The KIDSF was established in 2001 by the European Commission and other European donors to help Bulgaria cope with the early closure and decommissioning of the four older units.

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