Bulgaria watchdog reports on repository project delays

The National Audit Office said the proposal for the facility was given by the then Council of Ministers in 2005 with a completion goal of 2015. That deadline for commissioning the first stage - with 50,000 cubic metres capacity - was extended to the end of 2021.

This goal was also not met, with the report saying that the "State Agency for Waste Management and Recycling of Waste reported that the main reasons for this were related to lengthy coordination procedures with various institutions, appeals by non-governmental organisations of the decision to build the Repository and the decisions on the environmental impact assessment, etc. Problems also arose during the construction: unforeseen activities, such as additional strengthening of the ground foundation, suspension of work due to a tragic incident that occurred in 2019 at the construction site, disruptions in supply chains and an increase in the prices of basic materials, difficulties related to securing a sufficient number of qualified personnel (engineers, specialists, workers), etc. In addition, one of the companies in the German-Bulgarian consortium 'National Disposal Facility', which is the project's contractor, was declared bankrupt in 2024, which led to the transfer/redistribution of liabilities to the other participants in the consortium".

It says the expected deadline for issuing a permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency for commissioning the site is by the end of 2025.

On the issue of alleged public procurement irregularities the report says: "It was established that six contracts (four repair contracts with one company and two with another) violated the requirements of the Public Procurement Act - they were concluded as a result of direct award, although the price exceeds the permissible threshold and requires award through collection of bids with an announcement."

During the audit period - which covered 2022 and 2023 - 199 people were appointed or reappointed to jobs, with no selection process in 97% of the cases.

The repository site is close to the Kozloduy nuclear power plant. It will be a near-surface trench-type facility featuring multi-barrier protection for the storage of low- and intermediate-level waste in reinforced concrete packages. It will be used to store such waste from industry, medicine and households, wastes generated from the decommissioning of Kozloduy units 1-4 and from the future operation of nuclear power plants. The repository, which will not be used for storing high-level waste or used nuclear fuel, will have a capacity of 138,200 cubic meters of waste. It is expected to operate for about 60 years. The facility will then be closed and closely monitored for another 300 years.

The construction of the repository is part of the commitments made by Bulgaria in its accession to join the European Union.

The National Audi Office said it had made two recommendations to the Ministry of Energy and six to the  director of the State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) which should be implemented within seven months.