The two VVER-440 units at Kozloduy - which were commissioned in 1975 and 1980 respectively - were shut down at the end 2006 as part of the agreement for Bulgaria to join the European Union. Their existing licences for decommissioning were valid until the end of last month.
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Agency website, the scope of the licence includes "structures, systems and components of the nuclear facility and the site of the nuclear facility" with the permitted activities including "decontamination and dismantling of structures, systems and components, management of materials and radioactive waste from decommissioning".
The new licence was formally handed over on 31 July and entitles the State Enterprise Radioactive Waste "to carry out decommissioning activities in compliance with the provisions of the Law on the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy and the regulatory acts on its implementation, ensuring the necessary priority of nuclear safety, radiation protection, physical protection and safe management of radioactive waste over all other aspects of the activity".
Background
In April Bulgaria's national repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste was officially opened. It is expected to be filled over the next 60 years, and then closed and its contents closely monitored for more than 300 years. It will consist of 66 reinforced concrete structures with a total capacity of 19,000 containers - or 138,200 cubic metres - of radioactive waste. It is sited close to the Kozloduy nuclear power plant and is a near-surface trench-type facility featuring multi-barrier protection.
The country's Ministry of Energy said at its opening that the repository was "intended for processed and secured radioactive waste generated solely on the territory of Bulgaria. It will store low- and intermediate-level waste from industry, medicine and household waste, and waste generated during the decommissioning of units I-4 of the Kozloduy NPP, as well as from the operation of future new nuclear facilities. High-level waste and spent nuclear fuel will not be stored".
The construction of the repository was also part of the commitments made by Bulgaria in its accession to join the European Union, alongside the country's agreement to close Kozloduy 1 and 2 by the end of 2002 and units 3 and 4 by the end of 2006, which the European Commission had earlier classified as non-upgradable.
As part of this process the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development established the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund in June 2001 with the support of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, the European Union, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. An additional contribution was received from Ireland. As of the end of 2023, the fund had received contributions for more than EUR1.2 billion (USD1.38 billion).
It had a goal of safely decommissioning units 1-4 by 2030, aiming for a "brown field end state". It said this was helped by the creation of the Dry Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility, operational since January 2016, which stores spent fuel for more than 50 years, the Plasma Melting Facility, commissioned in 2018, which reduces the volume of and treats radioactive waste as well as the national disposal facility.
Bulgaria currently has two units operating at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant, with capacity of 2 GWe. There are plans to build two Westinghouse AP1000 units at Kozloduy, as well as various proposals for small modular reactors in the country.
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