Westinghouse modernizes units 5 and 6 of Kozlodui NPP in Bulgaria

Main article: Kozloduy NPP

2022: 10-year agreement with Westinghouse to supply nuclear fuel for Unit 5

On December 22, 2022, the management of the Bulgarian nuclear power plant (NPP) Kozlodui signed a 10-year agreement with Westinghouse on the supply of nuclear fuel for the 5th power unit of the nuclear power plant. This was announced by the Minister of Energy of the Technical Government of Bulgaria R. Hristov.

Theses of R. Christ:

• at the moment we have an extremely good and profitable agreement for our country;
• thanks to the signed nuclear fuel supply agreement, we have fully fulfilled our obligations to the EU on diversification issues;
• we managed to solve all technical issues in order to ensure the safe operation of the nuclear power plant on new fuel;
• nuclear fuel supplies from Russia are currently impossible;
• signing an agreement with Westinghouse provides guarantees for the operation of the nuclear power plant;
• with the signing of this agreement, we de facto ensure the continuous operation of the Kozlodui NPP, which is of paramount importance not only for us, but for the entire region.

The license for the use of new fuel at the Kozlodui nuclear power plant will be obtained in 2024. The new contract does not provide for the disposal of used fuel, so it will be stored at a specialized site of the station.

A similar contract for the supply of fuel for the 6th power unit will be signed by the end of 2022 with the French company Framatome, which has a license for the production of fuel from the Russian company TVEL (a subsidiary of Rosatom was the main supplier of nuclear fuel for the Bulgarian nuclear power plant).

Earlier, Bulgaria's technical government reversed a decision to limit diversification in the supply of nuclear fuel for the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in order to "provide an effective competitive environment for existing alternative fuel producers for type VVYeR-1000 reactors while avoiding safety compromises."

The Bulgarian People's Assembly in November 2022 instructed the country's government to take measures to license alternative nuclear fuel in order to issue permission for its delivery and use in 2024.

2020: Signing of the agreement on modernization of the fifth and sixth blocks

Westinghouse Electric Corporation has signed an agreement on the modernization of the Kozlodui nuclear power plant in Bulgaria. This became known on January 17, 2020.

The contract indicates the replacement of current information and control systems in blocks five and six according to the latest standards.

Modernization of the fifth and sixth units was necessary in the same way as any computer requires replacement after 15 years of operation, stated Alexander Nikolov, Deputy Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP

He clarified that the agreement with the American company was signed on January 16, and this was another step in the rehabilitation of two nuclear facilities. The expert stressed that cooperation with American colleagues has been going on since the mid-90s of the last century.

The latest generation automatic process control system, implemented at Kozloduy NPP, guarantees the reliability of 5 and 6 units for 30 years to come.

The contract was signed in the amount of over 63.5 million leva (36.1 million US dollars).

Alexander Nikolov emphasized that the extension of the service life of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant will be possible only^[1] with timely training of qualified personnel].

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