News

On 27 November 2014, the chairman of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (BNRA) – senior research associate Dr. Lachezar Kostov, officially awarded the Executive director of State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) – Dilyan Petrov with decommissioning licences for Units 1 and 2 of  Kozloduy NPP. The licences’ period is for 10 years, and the activities permitted by these licences will be performed by Specialised Division Units 1-4 Decommissioning.

Until now the SERAW activities on KNPP Units 1 and 2 were regulated by licences permitting the operation of the Units as RAW management facilities. With the new licences, BNRA determines the conditions for the actual commencement of activities for equipment dismantling in the Controlled Area of both Units.

Dr. Lachezar Kostov emphasized: “The licence’s subject and scope are described in 13 pages. It defines the safety requirements during the implementation of the entire decommissioning process. The scope of the licence includes the components, the systems and the structures of the facilities as well as their site. The activities permitted by licence are: decontamination, dismantling, management of materials and RAW from the decommissioning, management of the nuclear facility’s site and other activities supporting the implementation of the licences’s conditions. The Licensee is obliged to perform the activities in accordance with the Safe Use of Nuclear Energy Act (SUNEA).

For his part, Mr. Petrov stated: “For good or bad, the decommissioning process of nuclear units is being implemented for a first time in Bulgaria. I will not hide that it was not easy for us to meet the requirements of the Agency regarding this task. The difficult moments were related first of all to the human factor. It was important to have a delicate approach to the people – they had to overcome the separation from the nuclear plant and instead of operation – to start working on the decommissioning of the Units. Secondly, the preparation of the documents required a lot of concentration, consideration and revision which is reasonable – such documents are being prepared for a first time and we had to consider completely new factors in respect to the safety. Not to forget that during the documentation preparation period, twice we have made structural changes in the decommissioning specialised division to meet the requirements of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which finances the workers’ remuneration.”