Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant to add two reactors

Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant will add two reactors. Together, they are expected to increase its capacity by 2300 megawatts. The pressurized-water reactors will be built by US company Westinghouse Electric Company. The Bulgarian government announced the news today, according to DPA. The state energy holding will therefore increase the capital of the Kozloduy joint-stock company by up to 500 million leva (6.3 billion Czech korunas).

The first new reactor at Kozloduy is expected to be completed in 2033, with the second following three years later, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said. The country's only nuclear power plant currently has two 1000-megawatt reactors, built during the Soviet era. They account for about 30 percent of the country's total electricity supply. Two smaller reactors were shut down shortly before Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 over safety concerns raised in Brussels.

Currently, approximately one-third of Bulgaria's electricity is generated by nuclear power plants, while about half comes from coal, DPA reports. To become independent of Russian nuclear fuel, the country has already signed relevant contracts with Westinghouse Electric Sweden, a subsidiary of the US corporation, and French company Framatome.

The current pro-Western government, which has been in power since early June, cancelled a tender two weeks ago for the nuclear power plant project at Belene on the Danube, originally planned in cooperation with Russia. German energy company RWE withdrew from the project in 2009 due to a lack of funding.

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