Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear plant begins maintenance on unit 5
Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power plant, at Kozloduy on the Danube River, said on May 3 that it shut down the 1000MW fifth unit for scheduled annual maintenance and refuelling.
The reactor was shut down late on May 2 and is expected to be reconnected to the power grid sometime between June 1 and June 10, the plant said in a statement.
The other 1000MW unit at Kozloduy was working at a workload in line with power grid operator ESO’s orders, the plant said. (Last month, ESO asked all power generation facilities to work below full capacity in order to prevent the grid from overloading because of low domestic demand.)
Kozloduy now has two 1000MW operational units, with US firm Westinghouse hired last year 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.
(Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Photo: uvioc/flickr.com)
