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First Westinghouse fuel at Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant

Monday, 22 April 2024

A permit has been issued to begin the transition to Westinghouse fuel after the first of its supply was delivered for use in unit 5 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, as Bulgaria moves away from past reliance on Russian supplies.

First Westinghouse fuel at Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant — (Image: gov.bg)

Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev (pictured above) and Acting Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov visited the site, where Westinghouse is also lined up to build two new blocks, unit 7 and unit 8.

Malinov told reporters "we plan to gradually load the first 43 cartridges of fresh nuclear fuel ... in May" and noted that the diversification of suppliers also included French firm Framatome being contracted to provide fuel for unit 6.

In November 2022 Bulgaria's National Assembly voted to accelerate the process of securing an alternative to Russia as supplier of nuclear fuel for the Russian-designed VVER-1000 units at Kozloduy, signing a 10-year contract with Westinghouse to fabricate and deliver VVER-1000 nuclear fuel supplied from Westinghouse's fabrication site in Västerås, Sweden.

The country's Nuclear Regulatory Agency had already issued a licence for the storage of Robust Westinghouse Fuel Assembly (RWFA) fuel, with a permit for its operation issued on Monday afternoon. It said that the phased transition "to the new type of fuel will take four years".

Westinghouse has been providing fuel for Russian VVER nuclear plants in Ukraine over recent years as the country diversified its fuel supply even before the current war.

The Kozloduy nuclear power plant is in the northwest of Bulgaria on the Danube River and provides about 34% of the country's electricity. It features two VVER-1000 units currently in operation, which have both been through refurbishment and life extension programmes to enable extension of operation from 30 to 60 years.

In February the Bulgarian Parliament gave the go-ahead for talks to take place with Hyundai Engineering & Construction, as the sole shortlisted constructor for engineering, construction, delivery and commissioning of the new Westinghouse AP1000 units planned for the Kozloduy site. The aim is for a final investment decision by the middle of 2025 with the first new unit, unit 7, to be operational in 2035 and unit 8 in 2037.