The new seventh unit of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant will be ready by 2034

Within a month Bulgaria is expected to conclude an agreement with the US on the future construction of the seventh and eighth units at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, said Energy Minister Rumen Radev, who explained that today he received a mandate from the government to conclude the agreement. The text of the agreement was also approved at today's meeting of the Council of Ministers, January 25. Bulgaria has also started negotiations with a European company for reprocessing used nuclear fuel.

The new seventh unit of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant will be ready by 2034, the Energy Minister said.

"And with an additional horizon of between two or three years, depending on the procedures we have to carry out regarding unit number 8," Rumen Radev said.

In his words, the engineering of the project will be completed within a year. Then the reactors will be ordered.

"Learning the lesson from one other site, one other equipment, we will commission the production of the equipment with a long production period," the Energy Minister said.

"It can be said that we are in one of the leading positions and we can be the first to implement the AP 1000 technology, I think we are on the right track and I hope we will go all the way," Valentin Nikolov hopes.

A few days ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Agency allowed Kozloduy NPP to receive and store US fuel for the currently operating units 5 and 6. However, the fuel itself cannot yet be used because it is not licensed. It is also questionable what will happen to it after its use.

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant was issued a permit to store RWFA-type nuclear fuel

"We are also working very actively on a programme for alternative reprocessing outside the Russian Federation of spent nuclear fuel from units 5 and 6 with other partners, European partners," Rumen Radev explained.

The license for the operation of units five and six expires in 2027 and 2029, respectively. By then, Kozloduy NPP should have taken steps to extend it for another period of ten years.