Outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov Wednesday met with the leadership of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) and representatives of the US company Westinghouse, the Government Information Service said. The meeting was attended by outgoing Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov and Anton Simeonov, member of the Bulgarian Energy Holding's Board of Directors.
The meeting focused on the options for concluding the process of diversifying the nuclear fuel for Kozloduy NPP, which is currently entirely dependent on Russian import. The Government's goal is for one of the NPP's units to start using fuel from Westinghouse.
The NPP's leadership confirmed that the diversification of nuclear fuel supplies had been subject to discussion since 2012 as a precondition for protecting the national security, but until 2018 almost nothing was done to that end. The process practically began in 2019 with working discussions with Westinghouse as an alternative supplier and safety tests, but due to difficulties in the negotiations the start of the legal procedures has been delayed. That is why Petkov held the meeting to learn about the obstacles and risks to Bulgaria's national interest, the Government Information Service said.
The Prime Minister said he hopes to clear up the obstacles which have prevented the finalization of the project with Westinghouse, signed in early 2021. "I am concerned about what is happening in Europe and my forecast is that the war will continue for five more years, which is why I hope we will manage to continue [on] our path to diversification," Petkov said. In his words, other EU countries have already successfully diversified their energy supplies, while Bulgaria is currently trying to catch up so as to guarantee its citizens' energy security.
The participants in the meeting committed to clear the technical problems in the project in the shortest terms possible.
/BR/
news.modal.text
Nothing available