With a casual celebration, enjoyment and festive mood, State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) celebrated 20 years of experience as a national radioactive waste management operator.
“We are a startup organisation in a startup industry – RAW management – but the interest in it is growing worldwide, as people need to solve the problem of radioactive waste permanently and reliably”, said Dilyan Petrov, Executive Director of the Enterprise, in his welcoming speech. “I believe that this is the direction we will follow – science, innovation, even higher professional competence in the name of mitigating the risk of RAW. All our achievements would not have been possible without the daily hard work and dedication of the SERAW employees, these are collective achievements for which I and the management team are very grateful. In addition to being an occasion to take some time to look back in the past, every anniversary is also an opportunity to look forward!”
The same symbolic message was contained in the gift from the Mayor of the Kozloduy Municipality, Marinela Nikolova, who presented a plaque and a painting entitled High in the Heavens with wishes for health and prosperity of the SERAW management and employees: “During all these 20 years, you had been successfully tackling the responsible task of safe RAW management. I am happy to be able to share this anniversary with all of you and exactly at this point of time. 2024 is an anniversary year – the nuclear power plant celebrated 50 years since its establishment and we celebrated 55 years since Kozloduy was officially declared a town. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation, I wish everyone health, happiness, personal and professional success!”
Among the official guests of the anniversary celebration were also the Director of the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy with the BAS, Prof. Dimitar Tonev, PhD, the Deputy Executive Director of Kozloduy NPP, Kalin Stanukov, the Mayor of Mizia Municipality, Valya Bercheva and others.
One of the most interesting moments of the celebration was definitely the preparation of the food for the guests, which was happening before their eyes – in the largest Bulgarian pan and over open fire. Chef Angel Angelov from Koprivshtitsa prepared 500 servings of traditional beans with dairy farm butter in his “hero’s” pan. In addition to the occasion for celebration, the overall cheerful mood was constantly kept up by the musicians of X-R@Y music band and their talent to skilfully combine different styles – pop, rock, blues, world, funk, reggae and folk motifs. With several specially selected dances, the colourfulness of Bulgarian folklore was presented by the Shareniya (“Coloured”) Dance Club, comprised mostly by employees of the Enterprise.