Alongside Nukem, the consortium includes four Bulgarian companies. The contract is worth 72 million Euros. The facility is expected to be completed by 2021 to store radioactive waste from the station’s first four units, which are to be decommissioned. The project is financed by the Kozloduy International Decommissioning Support Fund managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. On behalf of Bulgaria, the contract was signed by SERAW, a state-owned company in charge of decommissioning the first four units of the nuclear station.
Composed of several concrete structures, each divided into individual compartments, the near-surface repository will have a total capacity of 138,200 cubic meters. Radioactive waste will be delivered to the repository over a period of 60 years. “This is the most important project that will step up our efforts in decommissioning the shut-down reactors,” Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Energy Nikolai Nikolov commented on the contract.
At present, the station operates two units with VVER-1000 reactors, each with an installed capacity of 1,000 MWe. One of the largest nuclear plants in Eastern Europe, Kozloduy was built with an active involvement of the Soviet Union. In 2006, Bulgaria was forced to shut down the first four VVER-440 reactors in a bid to comply with the EU admission requirements. The decommissioning of the units now requires settling radioactive waste disposal issues.
Nukem Technologies specializes in radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel management and nuclear decommissioning, as well as provides maintenance, consulting and engineering services for research reactors.
Rosatom is also involved in the modernization of Kozloduy Units 5 and 6. For instance, Rusatom Service has upgraded the generator at Unit 6 and is now doing the same work at Unit 5. The project aims at boosting the reactor’s rated capacity by 4% and the capacity of its turbine generator to 1,100 MW. For this purpose, the generator stator will be replaced with a new one, while the rotor and exciter armature will be repaired at the manufacturing plant in Saint Petersburg.
Last January Rusatom Service signed a contract with Bulgaria to study the feasibility of extending the service life of Kozloduy Unit 6 up to 60 years. The study will include a comprehensive audit of the reactor island, piping, primary and secondary thermal equipment, diesel generators, process equipment, buildings and structures of Kozloduy Unit 6 and assessment of their remaining life. These tasks are to be completed in 30 months. “Russia and Bulgaria have been working jointly in the nuclear industry for more than 40 years. We are glad that our cooperation continues and expands into important and promising areas, such as life extension and modernization projects,” Evgeny Salkov said.
Equipment for the nuclear station is manufactured by Rosatom’s engineering companies. A few days ago, the Central Design Bureau of Machine Building shipped yet another batch of equipment for Kozloduy NPP – two upgrade kits with spare parts for the GCN-195M main circulation pumps. The spare parts (fasteners and gaskets) are intended for the scheduled maintenance of main pump connections.
Kozloduy NPP is a long-term customer of the Central Design Bureau of Machine Building. Under the current contract, the company will manufacture and ship a total of ten upgrade kits to the Bulgarian nuclear station.
