On 21st and 22nd of June 2016, a meeting of the European Commission (EC) Monitoring Committee took place in Kozloduy to review the progress of the projects being implemented by State Enterprise Radioactive Waste (SERAW) and funded by the International Kozloduy Decommissioning Support Fund. Being a main fund contributor, the European Union (EU) was represented by Mr. Massimo Garribba, Director of Directorate D – Nuclear Energy, Safety and ITER, Directorate General for Energy of the EC, accompanied by his team and a representative of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which administers the funding. The Bulgarian side was represented by the Deputy Minister of Energy – Mr. Nikolay Nikolov. The work of the Monitoring Committee was supported by the Executive Director of SERAW – Mr. Dilyan Petrov, members of the Enterprise’s management, experts and project managers.
Topic of the meeting was the status of the activities related to the decommissioning of the Kozloduy NPP shutdown Units. Some important general clarifications were made during the discussions relating to the project management, prioritising of particular areas in the context of the whole project, permanent analyses of the necessity for implementation of particular measures – an official discussion which the participants considered as useful and beneficial for a better interaction.
Part of the time during this two-day meeting was used to visit the SERAW facilities at the Kozloduy Site. The participants visited Turbine Hall of Units 1-4 and were introduced with the new sites for temporary storage of dismantled equipment, which are under construction, and the building of the future Workshop for size reduction and decontamination of the materials from the equipment dismantling of KNPP Units 1-4 – one of the facilities of major importance for the decommissioning project. The EC representatives had the opportunity to visit also the Controlled Area where they familiarized themselves with the construction of the Plasma Melting Facility, the radiochemical-, mechanical- and chemical laboratories re-equipped for specific analyses required in the RAW treatment process and received information about the ongoing dismantling work of the intermediate loop of Units 1-2.
After the session, Mr. Garribba summarised: ‘What I saw today on the site, demonstrates a very good progress of the Decommissioning Programme. The progress in Turbine Hall is obvious. Noteworthy is also the progress of the construction of the facilities required for the decommissioning. The team demonstrated how important the planning is in the work process. It is impressive how devoted the people are to achieve the results in the right way – on time and within the financial framework set. The atmosphere for management and implementation of the project are very good here.’
For his part, Deputy Minister Nikolov said: ‘I am delighted that the Monitoring Committee was held here in Kozloduy. This gave the opportunity for the colleagues from EC to review the progress of the decommissioning activities on site and to see the new facilities which are being built to support the process. During the Committee meeting we clarified many of the questions previously set and as a result of the discussions we corrected some administrative discrepancies. The communication that we achieved was very good and I consider the meeting as a very successful step in our relationships with the European partners. I hope that all future meetings of the Monitoring Committee would be at least as effective as this one. I would be happy to participate in the work of this forum also in the future.’
The Monitoring Committee meeting for review of the projects funded by the KIDSF is held twice a year, prior to the KIDSF Assembly of the Contributors, which will take place on 28 June 2016 in London.
