Bulgaria inks Kozloduy new reactors engineering deal with Westinghouse-Hyundai
Bulgaria signed an engineering contract for the construction of two new units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant with the Westinghouse-Hyundai consortium on November 4 in Sofia.
Speaking to reporters at the signing ceremony, Bulgaria’s caretaker energy minister Vladimir Malinov said that the contract will lead to greater clarity regarding the costs of building two new reactors at the Kozloduy plant.
He did not give the exact value of the contract, but said it was in the $350 million to $370 million range, and said that he expected that a decision on the construction of new reactors could be taken by Parliament in the last quarter of 2025, once the consortium provides the results of its technical and economic analysis the project.
Westinghouse is slated to provide the technology for the two new reactors, while Hyundai would carry out the construction, with potential funding coming via loans from the US and South Korean export-import banks, reports in Bulgarian media said.
Westinghouse has long been interested in building new nuclear facilities in Bulgaria, going back to 2013, and had at one time signed a shareholder agreement to build a new unit at Kozloduy.
It currently provides fuel for the two 1000MW Soviet-made VVER-1000 reactors after Bulgaria decided to seek alternate suppliers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Kozloduy plant, Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power facility, also has four smaller reactors that it took offline and decommissioned as part of its commitments to join the EU in 2007.
(Bulgaria’s sole nuclear power plant at Kozloduy. Photo: uvioc/flickr.com)
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