First Westinghouse fuel for Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant has received approval from the national regulator to switch to nuclear fuel supplied by Westinghouse. This came after the plant took delivery of its first shipment of these fuel assemblies, intended for loading into the reactor core of Unit 5. Bulgaria hopes this move will reduce its dependence on fuel supplies from Russia.

During a recent visit to the Kozloduy NPP site, where Westinghouse plans to build two additional units (reactors 7 and 8), Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev and Energy Minister Vladimir Malinov met with journalists. Malinov described plans to gradually load the first 43 assemblies of fresh nuclear fuel from Westinghouse into the reactor and mentioned the involvement of French company Framatome as another fuel supplier for Unit 6.

Strategic changes in supply chains

In November 2022, Bulgaria's National Assembly approved an acceleration of the process to diversify nuclear fuel suppliers for VVER-1000 reactors. This step resulted in a 10-year contract with Westinghouse to manufacture and supply fuel from its manufacturing plant in Västerås, Sweden.

The licence to store Westinghouse Robust Westinghouse Fuel Assembly (RWFA) fuel had already been issued by the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency. The plant received approval to load the fuel into the reactor core on Monday, 22 April. The transition to a new reactor core fuel loading will take place gradually, in several stages, over the next four years.

History and future development of Kozloduy power plant

Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant is located in northwestern Bulgaria on the Danube River and provides about 34 % of the country's electricity output. Two VVER-1000 units are currently in operation at the site; they have undergone modernisation and plant life-extension programmes extending their operating lives to 60 years.

In February, Bulgaria's parliament approved the start of negotiations with Hyundai Engineering & Construction as the sole bidder to design, build, supply and commission the new Westinghouse AP-1000 units planned for the Kozloduy site. The goal is to make a final investment decision by mid-2025, with Unit 7 scheduled to start up in 2035 and Unit 8 in 2037.