Although in Bulgaria we had 5 parliamentary elections in 2 years, the policies regarding the nuclear the energy did not change.
Politicians and Parliament made decisions to build 4 new nuclear reactors. 2 in Kozloduy and 2 in Belene. They choose Western reactors without giving up the Russian reactors in Belene.
On May 12.2023, the Constitutional Court rejected the request of deputies from the pro-Russian, pro-nuclear parties of the Socialists (BSP) and „Vazrazhdane“ to establish the unconstitutionality of a decision of the 48th Parliament to conduct negotiations with the US government regarding the conclusion of a construction agreement of new nuclear power at the Kozloduy NPP with the AP 1000 technology, adopted by the parliament on January 12, 2023. These parties are in favor of using Russian reactors, for this reason they wanted the Constitutional Court to stop the parliament’s decision on the AP 1000.
18.5.2023 The French energy company „Electrites de France“ (EDF) has presented, through Bulgarian Energy Minister Rosen Hristov, a detailed plan of how a pre-project study would be carried out on the possibilities of completing the frozen project for the construction of the Belene NPP.
An engineering contract is to be developed and signed for the construction of two units of 1,000 megawatts each, using the existing Russian VVER-1000 equipment at the Belene site. Their completion with French conventional technology is pending. This will be the subject of the contract.The caretaker government’s intention to sign an engineering contract with France’s EDF to study whether Belene NPP could be completed using Western technology was announced at the end of March. Previously, the Minister of Energy informed that such a study is planned to be conducted by the American „Westinghouse“ for two new reactors at the site of the Kozloduy NPP.
According to the analysis plan submitted by EDF, this will take between nine months and one year, the energy department explained.
It is likely that for both analyzes – from EDF and Westinghouse, the National Electric Company, owner of the assets for the Belene NPP, and the Kozloduy NPP New Powers company, specially created for new reactors in Kozloduy, will pay respectively
Of course, it should be kept in mind that these contracts refer only to pre-project engineering studies and not to construction.
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