Bulgaria PM: Restarting Units 1-4 of Kozloduy NPP Is Populist Talk

A restart of units 1-4 of the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is a topic of debates driven by populist purposes, according to Bulgarian Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski.

Speaking during a meeting with representatives of civil society at the Council of Ministers building, Oresharski noted that the extension of the lives of units 5 and 6 of the Kozloduy NPP was a key priority of the government.

Stressing that the extension period would depend on the expert evaluation and the conclusions about the current rate of deprecation of the capacities, he suggested that an extension by 15-20 years was achievable.

Oresharski, as cited by investor.bg, said that it was hardly likely for the energy contracts to be declassified because they were bilateral and the step required the agreement of both parties. He underscored, however, that the persons who had signed the agreements were no secret.

In end-2013, nationalist party Ataka announced that it would submit to Parliament a proposal for restarting units 3, 4 of the Kozloduy NPP.

Ataka leader Volen Siderov insisted that the decision for the pre-term shutdown of the two N-plant units had been illegal, adding that the party was seeking to correct a great injustice.

He suggested that the restart of the two N-plant units would require a period of some ten months plus a sum of BGN 40-50 M, which would be returned in a month, provided that both reactors were re-launched.

Ataka made clear that the proposal did not mean that it was opposed to the development of the Belene NPP project.

Units 3 and 4 of the Kozloduy NPP were switched on in 1980 and 1982, respectively, and were stopped on December 31, 2006.

The decommissioning of the two...