Seventeen students and three lecturers from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and Technical University, Sofia, participated in the first-ever School on Radioactive Waste Management in the period 14-16 May 2025. The event is a joint initiative of State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) and the Center of Nuclear Competencies (CNC), targeting students enrolled in relevant academic programmes from both universities and in compliance with the National Strategy for Human Resources Development in the Nuclear Sector.
On the first day of the school, the students visited some SERAW facilities at the Kozloduy site— Turbine Hall, Unit 2 Main Control Room, Free Release Measurement Facility, Control Room of the Size Reduction and Decontamination Workshop, Radiochemical Laboratory, as well as the National Disposal Facility for Radioactive Waste. In the course of the two-day theory portion of the event, which was held at the Information Centre for Decommissioning, experts from the Enterprise delivered comprehensive presentations to the students on topics covering the radioactive waste management types, classification and approaches; objectives, activities, challenges and international experience in decommissioning; radiochemistry and radionuclide monitoring; underground research laboratories; National Disposal Facility for Radioactive Waste; Uniform Information Model and “live data” in the decommissioning process, and others.
“The aim of the initiative is to share our knowledge about RAW management and decommissioning of shutdown nuclear power reactors in Bulgaria. This topic is sensitive for the entire society and, in addition to the educational goal, our ambition has always been to be as open and transparent as possible and to provide information about our activities,” explained Dr. Sergey Tsochev, Chairman of the SERAW Management Board and host of the School on RAW Management.
“The Center of Nuclear Competencies has a primary mission to help improve the skills and competencies of both the employees and members – Kozloduy NPP Plc, Kozloduy NPP-New Builds Plc, SERAW, as well as school and university students, with the aim of improving their knowledge in the field of the nuclear sector,” explained Dimitar Stoyanov, representing the Center of Nuclear Competencies. “The School on Radioactive Waste Management is one of the tools that the Center is developing to make this process of building capacity, communities and attractiveness for work in the nuclear sector happen. Special thanks to SERAW for agreeing to be the host of this initiative.“
“This is my first-time participation in this kind of a format, because of the fact that my scientific interests are slightly different from the applied nuclear research, I deal with nuclear structure and nuclear data evaluation. But I’m glad I was part of this school, because I had the opportunity to witness the practical side of what we do in the laboratory. So, all things are interconnected. I’m impressed with the organisation, coverage, variety of topics, knowledge of the lecturers. In addition to considering the initiative useful for the students, it was very useful for me as well,” shared Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stefan Lalkovski from the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski.
The lecturers from the Technical University – Sofia, Assoc. Prof. Denitsa Zgureva-Filipova and
Assoc. Prof. Kalin Filipov, summarized: “Extremely useful! One of the challenges in nuclear knowledge management is the retrieval of the so-called ‘tacit’ or ‘implicit knowledge’. The communication we had during these three days with all your colleagues – both on the site and during the lectures – provided an opportunity for us as lecturers and for the university students to be able to retrieve part of this tacit knowledge.”
“Both the on-site visit and the lectures by the experts were extremely valuable for me, but I am seriously impressed by the Radiochemistry Laboratory and its Head, Galya Neshovska. I personally learnt a lot of new things from all the lecturers and it was extremely interesting for me. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the organizers and lecturers,” shared his impressions Petar Tuhchiev, a fourth-year university student majoring in Chemistry at Sofia University, who, at the end of the School on RAW Management, made an analogy to the knowledge and impressions gathered during the initiative with two popular quotes of Confucius: “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” and “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
In recent years, a trend towards a sharp decrease in the number of personnel prepared for employment in the nuclear industry, including RAW management, has been seen. In that regard, a National Strategy for the Development of Human Resources in the Nuclear Sector 2022-2032, as well as a three-year action plan for implementation of the National Strategy were adopted by a Decision of the Council of Ministers dated 15 June 2022. The Center of Nuclear Competencies was established as a non-governmental organisation and unites the efforts of the Bulgarian nuclear sector – Kozloduy NPP Plc, Kozloduy NPP-New Builds Plc and State Enterprise Radioactive Waste in partnership with Bulgarian educational and scientific organisations, to maintain and develop highly-qualified personnel for the Bulgarian nuclear industry.
