Reactor at Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear plant taken offline
Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear power plant took one of its nuclear reactors offline on October 23 after mechanical failure shut down one of its power generation turbines, reports in Bulgarian media said.
The failure occurred in the non-nuclear part of Kozloduy’s sixth unit, namely an “element of the turbine controls”, the power plant said in a statement. The station did not give further details about the exact details of the stoppage, but said that the nuclear reactor’s protective systems kicked in.
The incident caused no change in the radiation levels at the plant, the statement said. Bulgaria’s nuclear regulator has been notified of the incident and has appointed a committee tasked with investigating the reasons for the incident, which occurred at 9.24am.
Kozloduy now has two 1000MW operational units, with US firm Westinghouse hired this summer to carry out a feasibility study investigating the viability of adding another reactor to the site. Bulgaria shut down four smaller reactors, 440MW each, prior to joining the European Union in 2007.
(Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power plant at Kozloduy. Photo: uvioc/flickr.com)
